RWBY Operator
by Hi-Powered
Summary: A Tier 1 Special forces operator is flung into the RWBY universe and has to deal with it by operating hard.
1. Chapter 1

A fiery explosion rips through the building, engulfing it in flame. The shockwave tears into me, chased by a hot metallic shard. A sharp ringing fills my head, and I feel the all-too-familiar sensation of being tossed around. When I open my eyes, everything is a blur. Slowly coming to my senses, the swirling subsides. I put my hand where I suspect the concussion to be and begin to scan my surroundings, checking for any loss of vision. I look upward toward the sky which is obscured by a tree that towers over me. "Don't think I've ever seen trees like these before." Hearing what sound like birds in the distance with different but somewhat familiar calls, I take in the lush, expansive forest I find myself injured in. Rolling my head back and forth I think to myself, "Fuck. That must have been a big bomb if it threw me out of the building." Seeing as there are no spots in my vision, I scan more vigilantly. " Where am I?".

After a moment's pause I think, "I can figure that out later. Let's hope I still have all of my appendages." Even though I know it is only dumb luck, I still ask myself how I am still alive. I start by trying to move each one of my toes individually; then my feet, my boots hit each other with a dull thud. I move up from there, trying to move my right leg. I wince. A hot pain spikes my right side. The pain lets me know I'm not paralyzed but something definitely needed to be fixed. I look down to see that the source is just above my hip. A piece of shrapnel pokes out of a tear in my shirt, and the broken flesh underneath is slowly weeping blood. I groan. "Might as well get comfortable." Slowly using my elbows and hands to prop myself up, the bark making itself known between my shoulder blades, I huff myself up and sit against the tree. I close my eyes and take a deep breath to collect myself.

Reaching behind me and pulling out my first aid kit, I open it up to check the contents, making sure nothing is missing or blast didn't mess this up thankfully. Pulling my right hand away from the kit and moving it over to the wound on my right side, I push two fingers into it, swirling and prodding around for the piece of shrapnel. My fingers slip against the fat and blood, making it difficult to get a good purchase on the slick sides of the metal. After a clenched moment between my teeth, I find an edge where I can get a good grip on the little devil.

I slightly withdraw my fingers from the wound, and with my left hand, I grab a pair of medical pliers. I spread the wound open a little with the middle, index, and thumb of my bloody right hand. I insert the cold metal pliers in. Reaching in, and digging around for the shard, letting the growing pain guide me, I tap and scrape against the shard until I find the shrapnel edge. I take a sharp breath through the nose, and grit my teeth. An intense feeling of pain arcs across my lower torso, and with a wet pop, the object is freed.

I scream.

Placing the forceps in the grass next to me, my left hand goes to grab a suture kit and some disinfectant. Opening the bottle, I liberally apply it to the wound and quickly begin stitching myself up. Going back to the wound on my side, it is still weeping a little, so I put a bandage on it. I've kept myself from bleeding out for now, but I won't last more than a few days with this wound, assuming it won't get infected.

Leaning back on the tree I gather my thoughts "Gotta find help, or I won't make it very far."

I reach into my pack, grab my canteen to clean the blood off of my right hand, and then take a greedy pull from it before placing it back into my pack. Reaching for my FN Hi-Power drawing it from its holster, I press check it. Pulling back the slide and exposing the chamber, I see that it's loaded. I drop the mag and rack the slide, letting the ejected cartridge land in my lap. I rack the slide a few more times and nothing feels out of place. Taking aim at the closest tree in front of me, I squeeze gently on the trigger until it breaks with a loud click. Grinning to myself I place it in my lap, grabbing the loose cartridge with my right and the mag with my left hand and topping it off. I grab my Hi-Power in my left hand and using my right-hand seat the magazine and charge the pistol in one fluid movement then replace it back in its holster and run a hand over my plate carrier feeling all of the loaded mags on the vest.

I glance around where I was discarded. "Where is my damn rifle?" I ask out loud to myself before spotting my MK18 a short distance away from where I landed I guess. Picking myself up from the tree I've been leaning on groaning and feeling the dull ache of my wound I walk slowly over to my rifle. I kneel down next to it picking it up, checking the rifle to see that it's loaded, flipping the selector switch to safe, and looking it over seeing only scuff marks on the finish. "I'm glad you made it out safe." I say to my trusty rifle. Checking over the flip up iron sights then shouldering the rifle and taking aim at the closest tree, I smile confirming that the Comp M2 red dot sight is functioning as it should. I reach forward on the hand guard turning the D-Bal on and off. "Good to go." I pull the sling over my left shoulder and bringing it under my right armpit holding my rifle at a low ready, let go of the forend of my rifle and reach in a pouch on my battle belt pulling out a compass and checking for North.

"Well, lets go north then." I take a few steps forward glancing over my shoulder and make sure I didn't forget anything then reach up and check my helmet feeling everything is where it should be, along with my GPNVG-18. I go back to my pack grab my canteen take another slug of water and return it back making my way forward to what seems to be a clearing in the forest with a large hill in the center. I enter the clearing looking across the horizon for potential threats. I slowly move into the clearing and walk up the hill scanning my surroundings not knowing where I am currently. Cresting the hill after a short walk having a 360-degree view of my surroundings I spot what looks to be a sizable city in the distance along with what appears to be a clearing in the forest which is probably a road. I grab my compass to get my bearings and return it, then grab my binoculars for a closer look. Taking a peek I notice the bizarre architecture of the city trying to make out what I can with the limited magnification of my binoculars.I have no idea where I am. Placing the binoculars back in my pack, I look up at the sun estimating that it's 3 PM and adjust my watch accordingly. I then begin the hike to the potential road through the forest.

Nearing the edge of the clearing I hear a low growl in the distance and turn to face where the sound came from spotting a black humanoid figure slowly stalking closer on all fours. I flick the selector switch from safe to fire on my rifle and dash to a tree taking a cover behind it. I quickly glance over my shoulder and check my flanks seeing nothing else around before I lean out taking aim at the dark humanoid.

I bear down on the creature as it moves in closer, taking aim at its center mass I see glowing red eyes which match the red dot trained on its chest and several white spines protruding out of its back along with white bony patches covering its torso.

The creature rears its head, roars loudly, and charges, closing the space between us rapidly. Keeping calm I make a slight adjustment to my aim and center the dot on its head and upper torso before letting free a controlled pair. My rifle barks angrily at the creature staggering it with a roar of pain and frustration and wounding it, but it still keeps coming. I put another two rounds into it and it flops down to the ground lifeless.

Exhaling I reach with my right hand, pull a magazine from my plate carrier, quickly tactically reload my rifle, and return the slightly spent magazine to my plate carrier keeping my rifle trained on the downed creature. Breaking cover I slowly approach the creature. Getting within two yards of it and dropping my rifle to let my sling hold it close to my chest I draw my pistol quickly putting two rounds into its head just to be sure. "You scared the shit out of me." I say, talking more to myself than the dead creature.

Taking a closer look at the creature I feel a primal urge to move away from it crawl down my spine. Taking a measure of it having a humanoid shape I think back it the last shitty vampire and werewolf movie I saw. "Well I guess you are a werewolf then, I need to get to that city ASAP." I step away from the werewolf keeping my eyes trained on it. "Wait, what?" I mumble.

Looking over to the werewolf I see it begin to break down in a thick black mist. I turn from it and make good time through the forest to the dirt road. Checking my bearings I make my way to the city. "I've gotta move and make it to the city, I don't want to be alone in the forest with those things." I think to myself. Wincing and feeling the wound begin to ache from the exertion I touch the bandages to see that it hasn't opened up. "Time to start walking." Reaching into my pack I pull out a music player, plug it into my headset, and begin the walk to the city.


	2. Night

The last traces of sunlight begin to fade on the horizon, beckoning the start of the night. Taking a knee in the middle of the road, I grit my teeth feeling the action agitated the wound in my side. I notice that the road has been recently traveled on. Inspecting the footprints I recall my search-and-destroy training. The prints look like they should belong to an adult humanoid. Seeing that night was drastically shortening my vision, I resolve myself to pick up the pace.

I reach into my pack and pull out an energy bar. Tearing it out of its wrapper I quickly eat it in several large bites. I return the wrapper to my pack, to help keep a low profile. Grabbing the silencer off my plate carrier I affix it to the end of my rifle with a loud metallic clunk."Best not to draw attention to myself if I run into another one of those things." Resuming my hike I let go of my rifle allowing the sling keep it in place.

Reaching up to my helmet, and taking ahold of the GPNVG-18 panoramic night vision goggles I fold them down over my eyes. With my right hand I turn on the device hearing a slight hiss as the unit warms up. Adjusting the brightness, then with both hands changing the focus, I grin feeling satisfied being able to see as well as I could during the day, albeit with a slightly restricted field of view. I let my eyes adjust to the amplified light revealing the road and forest with an eerie green glow. Taking hold of the rifle I push the selector into full auto with a faint click."Just in case." I mumble to myself, continuing on my hike for a couple of hours.

The forest begins to thin out along with a small incline to the road and a signpost where the trees stop with a few planks of wood with names on them. Moving in closer for a better view at the top plank I see what looks like the word "Vale" Written on the sign in what appears to be English, but with a unique font, and below that a smaller sign facing in a similar direction "Beacon." Looking out on the horizon I see what appears to be farmland with several small buildings. My goggles flare up from the light coming from inside them about a mile out from where I stand.

I consider how I should make my move through the farmland and into the city. Almost instinctively, reaching into my back and pulling out a thermal monocular with my right hand and lifting up my night vision goggles with my left hand, I bring it up to my right eye to take a peek and see the ambient heat from one of the few inhabited buildings. I then scan the horizon for anything else but see nothing outside of the building showing up in the sweep. "Guess everyone has packed up for the night." I say out loud to myself. Turning off the thermal monocular and returning it back to my pack, then flipping down my goggles, I look at a semi-remote house in the distance. "Gotta find out exactly what I'm dealing with here."

As I step off the road and into the fields I spot a small trail leading to the nearest house. I move as quickly as stealth will allow me. Methodically covering the distance, checking for traps or creatures, along with any other obstacles, I cautiously progress, but don't want to take any chances. Moving through the field I take notice of what is being grown and reach out to inspect it going over the stock and leaves of a plant that resembles corn. My left hand moves from the rifle to the husk and opens it to reveal that it is indeed corn. I smile at the familiar sight. So the vegetation is similar here in Vale. Letting go of the husk, and taking my rifle in a low ready, I close in on the opening which surrounds the house. Crouching down and taking a look at it from my vantage point I see that most of the lights are still on and spot movement inside. Feeling my heart race not knowing what to expect I check the rest of the openings only seeing a small solitary shed near the end of the clearing at my 3 o'clock and the house in front of me with a waist high fence surrounding it.

Reaching up to my electronic earmuffs I turn up the volume on the external microphone, hoping it will make eavesdropping a little bit easier. Moving to the fence quickly I vault over it, raise my rifle, and take aim at the windows covering them. With my right hand on the forend of my rifle I push the activation stud on the IR laser seeing it appear on the window through my night vision goggles. I approach the side of the house, taking a knee by one of the lit windows. Pulling my left hand from my rifle and turning up the volume even more on the earmuffs, I hear what sounds like an adult male voice.

"With the vytal festival around the corner all of the restaurants and grocery stores I sell my crops to have been buying up all I have. We can really get ahead and buy the new farm equipment we've needed for a good while and have the Lien to spare to put quite a bit into savings".

I then hear what sounds like an adult woman respond.

"That's great honey it feels good that all of our hard work pay is paying off."

Another pause. I hear what sounds like furniture being shuffled around on a wooden floor, then the male voice speaks again. "I'll be in bed shortly. I've gotta grab something out of the shed." Leaning out I take a peek at the shed. "Shit." I think to myself. I turn around moving to a prone position and feel the cool earth through my fatigues. Taking cover by the edge of the house to get a good view of the shed I hear the back door of the house open with a loud creak.

Leaning out just a bit further, I see the man walk into view and keep my rifle trained on him, the IR dot menacingly drifts over his upper back. I look over his attire which matches the profession of someone who works the land seeing his heavy and worn pants and a flannel long sleeve shirt with the sleeves folded up just at elbow length. "Well he looks human enough to me." Estimating he stands about 5 ft 10 inches tall, and weighs about 200 pounds soaking wet. "Alright, time to go." I think to myself. Digging into the ground with my elbows and knees I crawl backwards, shift into a crouch, and slowly move around to the opposite end of the house. I make a beeline back into the crops until I feel I have gone far enough, and finding a small berm I take a seat on the ground. I unsling my rifle and place it on my left side, then pull off my pack and place it opposite to my rifle. I reach into it pulling out a blanket and wrapping myself. I take off my helmet, and place it behind my head to make a terrible pillow but a pillow nonetheless. Checking my watch, I set it to go off at 4 a.m., or at least what I think 4 a.m. is.

I look up at the sky seeing the stars and looking for any formation that looks even remotely familiar. Scanning the night sky, my eyes wander until I come across something strange. "Wherever I am has a moon... Wait, what?" Standing up from my resting place, I stare at the sundered moon. It looks like a good one-third of the moon has been broken off and is now orbiting the largest piece. I jump slightly. "If gravity here works like what I'm used to I bet the moon does all sorts of weird things to the tides, assuming there are oceans."

Reflecting on the discovery, I return back to my resting place, and think back to what I think the husband and wife were talking about. "So there is a big event coming up the Vytal Festival, and business has been good, and they have been making some good money 'Lien', I believe they called it." Reaching into my pack I pull out my wallet looking at the useless 100 dollar bills folded into it and shrug. "Maybe they will honor the almighty US dollar here." Chuckling lightly to myself I rest on my helmet once again and pull my blanket around my body before closing my eyes and trying to get some sleep.


	3. Day Break

I am roused from my less than comfortable sleep by the high pitched chirping from my watch. I reach over to turn the alarm off. Shaking off my drowsiness, I pull the blanket off and reach for my rifle lying on the ground next to me. I quickly roll up my blanket putting it into my pack, then pull out a meal ready to eat and set up the heating pack to warm up the contents that pass as food inside. I make a quick sweep of my surroundings and see that no one is out and about yet and return to my camp. Taking a seat on the cool ground by my MRE I pick it up feeling the warmth radiating from it easing my stiff body from last night's sleep. I turn the MRE in my hands to read the package, chicken alfredo. I tear the top off of it and, grabbing the spoon in my left hand and cradling it in my right, dig into the gooey mass that passes for alfredo sauce noodles and chicken and take a generous spoonful.

I now have time to ponder on how I got here. "It was a nighttime raid, just like any other..." I think to myself while taking another spoonful of my breakfast. "The rest of the Deltas surrounded the building while we were to make entry. It should have been simple. Take down the bad guys and nab the HVT (High Value Target). Even though our intel was spotty, it wouldn't have been the first or the worst high risk entry under our belt." The steam carried the tannic musk of the cheap and nasty mud water, but its warm. "'Marc go left and clear that room!' Each of us cleared our assigned sectors. My rifle's barrel scooted around in the darkness like a bloodhound trying to pick up a trail. We eventually formed up on a locked but flimsy door. I felt the pinch of my partner on my shoulder. I reverse heel kicked at the base of the door, then heard the loud hiss of a detonator cord being triggered."

"I tried to warn them but by the time the words had gotten out it was too late." Looking down at my hands, I see that they are shaking. I come to the realization that most of my unit is probably dead. I snap out of it feeling the warmth of the coffee that had spilled out of its cup and onto my hand. A single teardrop wells up and rolls off my face. Reaching up with my right hand I rub both of my eyes. Gulping down the rest of my coffee and quickly packing up my campsite I grab my rifle and sling it over my shoulder, holding it at a low ready.

"I'll mourn for them in time."

Resolving myself, I pick myself up off the ground check my bearings and make my move through the corn field. Hitting a small road between fields I peek out looking for civilians and, seeing none, walk across the path into another corn field. Scanning through another clearing, I see a house with a clothesline in the backyard filled with air drying laundry, and a thick, heavy, dark brown canvas tarp, swaying in the breeze.

"I can't walk into the city like this." I say, looking down at my camouflage combat fatigues and gear on top. A dumb plan begins to form in my mind. Quickly moving into the clearing from behind the clothesline, I grab the tarp and roll it up while slipping back into the cornfield. Moving a good way before stopping and rolling out the canvas tarp, I reach with my left hand for my combat knife strapped onto the the right shoulder strap of my plate carrier.

I take my knife and cut out the center with a hole plenty big though to fit my head through to make a makeshift poncho. I pull off my helmet and clip it on the right side of my belt via the chin strap. I grab the poncho and pull it over me. "Well, this looks dumb, but whatever, I don't know anyone here." I chuckle lightly, thinking about how stupid I look. I make my way back to the side road then merge with the main road as the sun begins to rise. After a short hike to the end of the farming district I spot a bridge spanning across a river to what looks like the residential area. Along the way I only run into farmers heading out to a day of tending the fields and manage to not draw any attention to me by responding with a quick "Good morning" or an acknowledging nod.

"I've got to find a hospital and stash my weapons somewhere so I can get treated or procure better medical supplies." I contemplate as I make my way across the bridge. "My luck is holding out but I'm going to have to find a map of the city or ask someone where the hospital is or a doctor." Reaching down I touch the bandages and feel them damp with blood, still, my situation could be a lot worse all things considered. As I pass over to the other side of the bridge I officially enter the residential area following the flow of foot traffic and do my best to remember street names and make a mental map of Vale. I take notice of the people who are human and speak English but with a unique accent that hasn't been too difficult to keep up with.

I approach a male teenager wearing an apron with the logo of the restaurant he is standing in front of and passing out flyers to the I approach him while he holds out a flyer for me to take and I do so. Glancing over the flier seeing the ads and coupons for the restaurant looking down at him. "Hey, I'm coming in for the vytal festival." I say, putting my left hand up to my face as I turn away and fake a cough."My travels seem to have taken their toll on me, probably the weather. Can you tell me where the nearest hospital is?" The young teenager's face scrunches up with concern then breaks out into a look of determination as he pulls out a small notebook and begins to quickly draw a map to the nearest hospital. "You're Not too far away from one." He tells me as he points in the general direction then hands me the piece of paper with the crude map drawn on it. "When you feel better come back and enjoy the restaurant it's the best in Vale." The teenager says with a smile on his face. I return the smile and wave goodbye.

I take a good look at the map following it and see the hospital come into view. After walking around its perimeter in a short circuit I feel satisfied. Moving away from the hospital I stop at a four-way intersection waiting for the pedestrian crossing light to change color. My whole body tenses up feeling my heart begin to race in my chest then slowing down as the adrenaline is dumped instinctively into my body. Taking a deep breath through my nose I smell the air thick with sweat, fear, and blood, the stench of battle I know all too well. Shifting my vision into the distance I hear a loud crash and explosion feeling it shake the ground from here and spot the rising dust cloud not too far away. Without thinking I pull off my makeshift poncho and discard it on the ground beside me. I take in my surroundings and see most of the civilians standing it still in shock. Donning my helmet I grab my rifle and take off the silencer storing it in my plate carrier. I shift my rifle into a low ready and breathe in.

" MOVE YOUR ASS!"

Yelling out in a voice that can cut through a hail of gunfire I get the appropriate response as the citizens begin to run away and seek shelter. I start dashing towards the epicenter of the of the battle hearing what sound like air raid sirens blaring loudly. Covering a few city blocks I round the corner to an open plaza and see the sundered ground and what looks like an overturned train off center in a dip in the middle of the square.

Taking cover behind the stonework of the plaza looking down into it I spot several of the monsters similar to the one I ran into in the forest along with some even stranger bipedal ones, a massive snake, and several bear looking monsters all sharing similar traits in their physical appearance. They are surrounding four teenage girls each wielding one of what look like a red scythe, a rapier, some sort of sword, and yellow gauntlets?

Leaning into my cover I flick my rifle to full auto. Seeing that the monsters are preoccupied with the girls I take aim at a bear monster letting loose a burst with my rifle barking angrily at my target. The rifle recoils back into my shoulder as the rounds strike my target, I adjust my aim opening up on the other nearby monsters and dropping them almost wholesale.

As some of them turn to charge me I prioritize them and quickly drop them before feeling my rifle click dry. Returning to cover I strip out the magazine and feed in a fresh one in one well-practised movement. Checking my surroundings I see two citizens. One of them is swinging a chair at a werewolf monster trying to fend it off to protect their wounded friend.

Breaking cover I take aim while moving and loose a controlled burst into the skull of the monster killing it, then transition to another one charging them and unleash a long angry burst which quickly drops it. Approaching the group of trapped civilians I look at the wounded man on the ground clutching his gored side and kneel down beside him "I'll carry him, you two move now!" I shout.

The three look back at me with confusion then quickly start running. Reaching down I grab the wounded man and lift him onto my shoulder with a grunt of exertion and pain, feeling a few of the stitches pop on the wound on my side.

"Damn."

Quickly following the two other men I keep up with them going two blocks before they stop. I place the man down and lean him up against a building. I pull out my first aid kit and grab a bandage. "This will help with the bleeding, but I need you to move your hand." I say in a calm, reassuring voice while keeping eye contact. He slowly moves his hands out of the way. I quickly apply the bandage before going back to my kit and grabbing a small syringe of morphine which I hold up to his face. "This is for the pain you'll feel real good shortly." I say reassuringly. He just nods yes as a response. Nodding back then pushing the syringe into the meat of his thigh I empty the contents. I look up at his friends. "You two carry him somewhere safe, GO!" I command them. They pick up their friend and move away from the battle. I seal up my first aid kit and place it back in my pack before sprinting back to the fight. Seeing that a mixed bag of teenage boys and girls is fighting these monsters I move to cover and get a commanding view of the battle. I notice that they are holding their own against these monsters quite well by using a mix of shooting, martial arts, and high flying acrobatics.

Looking away from the teenagers I see the monsters charge towards them. I follow their path back to the opening in the ground and see them pouring out of it. I break cover and move closer to the opening. "Gotta close that hole to try and slow down the monsters advance." I consider the best action to take. Taking aim at the monsters charging through the hole in the ground I shoot at the targets as they present themselves dropping many of them but in the process burning through about half of my ammo stock."What I wouldn't give for a machine gun right now." My rifle clicks dry and I return to cover reloading quickly.

I spot an M240 Bravo medium machine gun and several belts of ammo resting on the ground next to me and smile at the sight. "This will level the playing field." I sling my rifle over my back and grab the ammo belts hanging them around my neck and feeling their weight. I hold the machine gun opening it up to expose the feed tray and load a belt into it and close the cover, then grab the charging handle and rack it putting the M240B into battery.

Bringing the machine gun to bear I check my lanes of fire before pushing the safety to fire. Sighting down the closest monster coming out of the hole in the ground I squeeze the trigger of my machine gun and it roars to life with a deep percussive pop. Sweeping it to the left I kill a multitude of monsters in the initial burst seeing the effectiveness. Letting loose another burst I stem the tide of monsters pouring out of the hole.

"Gotta close that hole." Returning to cover I pull off my pack grabbing all of the C4 plastic explosives I have and quickly prepping it and attaching a remote detonator to it. Checking the signal to the switch and seeing that it's more than adequate I place the C4 into an open pouch on my vest. Grabbing a new belt and connecting it to the mostly spent one I lift the machine gun with both hands holding the buttstock under my left armpit and reaching with my right hand to grab the bipod, using it to better support the machine gun. While lifting the heavy weapon I feel my wound opening up further causing pain to radiate from it. "Better make this count." I take my first agonizing step forward hissing loudly through my gritted teeth before walking into the courtyard and spotting the first monster to turn its attention to me.

Meeting its roar with a burst from my weapon I move closer to the breech and see a giant snake beast slithering out from the hole. My blood boils. Leveling my weapon at the monster I squeeze the trigger of my machine gun, letting its roar join with my own furious yell. I see the bullets strike the monster staggering it. Sweeping my fire from its body to its head, I quickly pulp it into a gory mess.

I get close enough to toss the C4 into the hole. Killing some more monsters with a sweep of my weapon I see the belt running low on ammo. Dropping the weapon and reaching into my pouch I pull out the C4 taking it in my left hand and tossing it into the hole. I reach down to pick up my machine gun, then throw it over my shoulder and run as fast as I can away from the hole. I dive over landing roughly behind a small wall and reach for the detonator, disengaging the safety.

" FIRE IN THE HOLE."

I press the detonator and there is a momentary pause and then a deafening boom as I feel the ground shake from the explosion. "I hope that was enough." I mumble to myself. Picking myself up to see my handiwork, I see that the hole has collapsed. Looking up I spot a massive floating ship and several smaller landing ships overhead dispensing humanoid shaped robots as they begin to mop up the monsters with the landing ships providing close air support. Knowing the battle is over I stand up looking in awe at the spectacle.

The battle is over. Taking a quick inventory of my equipment and checking my vest seeing I've spent more than half of my ammo I walk over to where I initially took cover clearing the machine gun and making it safe then leaning it on the wall. I groan out loud as some of the pain fades away from my stressed wound on my side. Taking a knee I gather up all of my spent magazines into a dump ponch on my belt then grab my canteen opening it up and quickly chugging down what remained. I almost don't notice the dull thud to my side before I instinctively turn and reach for my pistol only to see a girl wearing a black and red 80s goth lolita style outfit and resting an impressive scythe on her shoulder that matched her outfit. I recognize her as one of the four girls that were fighting the monsters in the center of the square. I slowly get up keeping eye contact with the girl and assuming she is friendly as I take a seat on the wall for support.

"Was that you that collapsed the hole? What sort of dust did you use? Must of been a lot of fire dust!" She quickly blurts out in a high pitch voice that matches her fame.

"Dust?" I ask. I ponder over it for a few seconds before noticing that the girl is getting more and more anxious with each passing second.

"No I used about 5 lbs of C4." I say as I look over my shoulder at the collapsed hole then back to the girl. "Thankfully it was enough." I finish taking in a pained breath. The girl's eyes quickly dart to the machine gun leaning on the wall then over to my rifle.

She rests the end of her weapon on the ground with a metallic thud leaning on it slightly.

"C4." she says out loud pondering to herself then making eye contact with me.

"Those weapons you have are kinda plane looking and really loud but it was really cool how you charged that King Taijitu and shot it to pieces!" She blurts out, cupping her ears with her hands.

I smile to myself. "Ya they can be pretty loud." As I finish I another girl runs up wearing a brown top with an orange scarf almost knee high brown leather riding boots and a half skirt with what look like brown hot pants with long flowing blonde hair and a surprising amount of exposed skin. Her gauntlets seem to have retracted up upon themselves making them smaller. She gives a motherly look over to the girl in red then looks over to me and quickly back to the girl in red. She sighs and looks back over to me.

"My name is Yang Xiao Long and this is my sister Ruby Rose, Thanks for the assistance with those grimm." Yang says then punches ruby lighty on her arm making her yelp. I laugh at the sight causing a twinge of pain but at the same time making a mental note that those monsters are called grimm.

"I heard the explosion and my training and instincts just kicked in. You two and your friends seem pretty capable yourselves." I say as my mind screams at the insanity of having teenagers fighting monsters. Yang smiles and crosses her arms in an approving pose.

"You did a pretty good job yourself, the King Taijitu is no pushover." Yang finishes as a red headed girl I'm guessing is the same age as Yang runs up wearing what looks like a bronze colored corset and thigh high metal leg armor with a sword and shield that matches what the spartans used when they were still around as well as a red skirt that has a long flowing red cloth sash sitting on her waist. She is followed by a blond haired boy wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans with what looks like medieval style breastplate and shoulder guards and wielding a matching sword and shield. They both stop next to Yang and the four of them form a semicircle around me. The redhead and the blonde both share a look of curiosity and gratitude. Ruby breaks the silence looking over to the redhead girl and the boy.

"Thanks for being so quick to come and help us Jaune." So the boy's name is Jaune. I add another mental note. Jaune then replies to Ruby.

"Pyrrha and I and the rest of the team were glad to help but it seems that Atlas has everything under control now." pointing up to the ships continuing to dispense smaller ones keeping a perimeter around the sight. I look to Pyrrha making sure to remember each of their names. I stand up and the group looks back at me almost having forgotten that I was sitting there.

"My name is Marc Dawson and its nice to meet y'all." I take a slight pause. " Ruby,Yang,Pyrrha and Jaune." making sure to look each one the them in the eye as I say their names. I hold my hand out for a shake and yang reaches out to shake it then quickly pulls away as a mixture of panic and concern crosses her face. I look down at my offered hand seeing that it's covered in blood and there is a large dark red wet spot of blood on my lower side as my uniform soaks it up. My legs buckle underneath me as the blood loss catches up with me and I collapse onto the ground. I hear Jaune yelling in a commanding tone as both he and Yang take a knee around me. "Ruby Pyrrha go get a medic now!" I feel Jaune's hands on my wound and groan as the pain spikes from the pressure. I look up at the sky partially obstructed by a large ship as the color fades from everything and i'm taken by the darkness.


	4. Integration with a side of Eggs&Bacon

Being roused from my sleep I hear footsteps around me along with several faint beeps. Opening my eyes I see an off-white ceiling and a privacy curtain in the edge of my vision. Noticing the movement that woke me from my sleep, I see a female nurse checking over the machines that were monitoring my vitals and taking notes. I eye over the white uniform that clings tightly to her curves leaving little to the imagination and take notice of her name tag which reads "Shelly." She finishes up with what she is doing, turning her back to me to reveal a wolf's tail coming out of a hole in her uniform just above her butt. I stare at it in wonder. "The drugs they are giving me must be excellent." I reach out and grab the woman's tail giving it a light tug. Shelly yelps, immediately swatting my hand away from her tail and turns to face me blushing with a scowl on her face. "That tail is real?" I ask, confused, as I look up at the woman from the hospital bed.

"Of course it's real!" Shelly barks at me with frustration. She quickly turns around grabs her notepad and leaves the room.

"That went well." I reach with my right-hand touching where my wound was and feeling only a scar. I guess the medicine here is excellent, where I'm from I'd be out of action for almost a month. I lean back in the hospital bed and close my eyes to take a nap.

Being roused from my sleep once more, I open my eyes seeing that the privacy curtain has been pulled back to reveal the hospital room I'm in has a small sitting area with a Chairs and a table. Looking out the window I see that it's probably mid afternoon. I don't see the door but it's a safe assumption that it's obscured behind the curtain. The door opens with a metallic click and I can tell from the footsteps that three people have entered the room. I expect the worst, not knowing how the government here treats an unknown person.

I exhale as I see that it's Ruby,Yang and Jaune. Walking over to the table Ruby and Yang both wave at me and Jaune gives me a short nod that I return. Yang speaks first as they take a seat at the table and I sit up in the hospital bed.

"The nurse told us that you woke up today so we decided to stop by and bring you dinner as thanks." Yang says with a cheery voice. Well I haven't had any real food in a while and I can probably get some information out of these kids. I climb out of the bed and Jaune immediately jump up out of the chair offering me his hand, I don't need it but I take it anyways noticing his firm grip. I can safely assume that the kid is strong. "Thank you." I say as I take my spot at the round table. Yang reaches into her bag and pulls out a meal large enough for the four of us. My mouth waters immediately from the smell and looking it over it seems to have the appearance of BBQ I'm familiar with being from Texas. There are also fixings of what appears similar to mac and cheese, potato salad, and a pile of rolls, with in a large platter of what looks like smoked brisket in the center. I look over to Jaune and he is just as shocked as I am while Ruby and Yang grab what they want from the assortment of food. I begin to stack my plate with what's the most familiar looking at first but then just grab a good bit of everything.

"So yang did you cook all of this by yourself? It's really good." I ask after inhaling a few of the items on my plate, trying to get a feel for the people I'm having dinner with. Yang looks up from her plate and smiles back at me, but ruby speaks for her.

"Yang's cooking wasn't the best at first when we were growing up but she got a handle on it pretty quickly." As Ruby finishes Yang leans forward sizing me up.

"Where are you from?" She pauses for a few seconds then goes back to her plate waiting for my response. Jaune leans into me whispering. "Ruby and Yang are betting who has to clean their dorm they would be interested in where I'm from what with my attire and my weapons being so different from theirs.

"Well I'm going to have to disappoint both of you, I'm from Texas, Cypress Texas To be specific." I say with pride. The three of them stop eating and have a shared look confusion.

"Cypress, Texas? Never heard of it." Jaune speaks up and looks to Ruby and Yang as they both shrug in agreement.I collect my thoughts of the events that led up to this point. Exhaling loudly, I finish collecting my thoughts.

"What I'm going to tell you is exactly how I ended up here, it's the truth you have no reason to trust me or believe what I'm about to tell you but I swear to you it's the truth." I tell them flatly.

I spend the next thirty minute telling my story from the ill fated mission my unit was sent on to how I woke up injured and made it into the city to help defend against the grimm attack. "And now here I am having dinner with y'all." I finish as I polish off what's on my plate and go for seconds filling it up again. Jaune is listening intently as he leans back in his seat and I think he buys what I've said. Glancing over to Yang she has a look of concern on her face and I can tell she wants to say something. Ruby was the most excited out of the group when I finished. Jaune breaks the silence.

"So you're a soldier where you are from right?" He asks.

I nod yes while I'm finishing a fork full of food. "I am a soldier, but to be more specific I'm a member of delta force which is one of the few elite special forces units that the United States of America used for high risk and covert operations. I've also done work with the Central Intelligence Agency's Special operations group better known as SOG."

"So you're a badass and you work with a bunch of other badasses?" Ruby interjects. My mood darkens as I remember that most of my unit was caught in the explosion and they are probably dead, assuming they weren't blown into this reality. Yang seems to notice my darkening mood first.

"Do you think your team is all right?" She asks in a timid but respectful tone that doesn't fit the chipper attitude that I'm used too from her.

"Well if they were lucky I took the brunt of the blast, if they were unlucky the explosion could've leveled the building but I have no way of knowing." I think back to the event knowing more than likely most of my team is dead or critically injured. The three of them remain silent for a short bit.

"Ok I believe you when you say you aren't from remnant, do you need some time alone?" Jaune asks in a somber tone Ruby and Yang also nod in agreement.

"No I'm good, I'm glad you believe me when I say I'm not from here." I recall what Jaune said. "Remnant, so that's what this planet is called?" The three of them all nod yes.

"Do you have grimm where you're from?" Ruby cuts in and asks.

"Where I'm from is earth and no we don't have those monsters you call grimm or anything even close to them. We also don't have people walking around with animal features." I reply taking notice of their shock as if I told them that our sky is green.

Jaune interjects "The grimm to us are almost a force of nature, they attack any of the creations of the people of remnant. The reason why Vale is safe is because its geography provides a buffer from the worst of their attacks."

"So do the Grimm have a leader or an organization?" I ask leaning forward in my seat.

"The grimm are creatures that simply exist, they don't have a leader or organization, they are simply attracted to any man made creations and negative emotions, though they have been noted to have animal like instincts and form hordes to attack if they sense a lot of negative emotions."

"So the grimm that came out of that tunnel were drawn to the terrorist attack that happened in the square because it caused a panic." I say recalling seeing the overturned train that probably caused to breach in the courtyard assuming that the grimm couldn't of done that by themselves.

Ruby cuts in excitedly after I finish. "It was the white fang being led by a known criminal called Roman Torchwick who masterminded the attack, but Torchwick was captured once the breach was contained and he is in Atlises custody right know." She finishes with a proud smile.

I lean back in my seat. "So both of your teams helped foil a plot to bring down the city." I grin to myself. The pencil pushers back at the CIA would be pulling their hair out trying to figure out how a group of late teenagers helped stop a terrorist attack and captured the mastermind behind it.

"Well it was mainly Ruby and her team that did all of the work, she just called and asked for help from my team when the breach happened." Jaune adds.

I look over at Ruby surprised she is the leader of her team, but if she get results then more power to her. "Hey how about we give Marc a tour of the school and find a place for him to stay." Ruby says cheerfully. Yang gives a quick nod in agreement.

"I'd love to see the school but I don't think I can walk around in a hospital gown." I say, gesturing to the garment. Yang nudges Jaune and he reaches into his pack and hands me a school uniform. "I hope it fits." He says as he places it in front of me. I look at the uniform and it's basically a three piece suit. "This must be a really nice school if this is the uniform, most schools where I'm from don't come even close to a uniform like this if any."

There's an awkward pause shared between us before Yang gets up and grabs Ruby by her hood and drags her out of the room. Jaune follows behind. "Let's give him some privacy." Yang says to the other two before calling back to me. "We will be waiting outside." She winks at me as she closes the door behind her.

Blindsided by the wink I quickly shake it off and head over to the sink. Looking at myself in the mirror I see my well trimmed beard is more unkempt than I last had it. Seeing that there is a small shaving kit and toothbrush I quickly trim it up making it a little more presentable and I brush my teeth putting the tooth brush back where I found it. I place my hands under the water and splash it on my face, drying it off with a small towel and fixing my hair. I figure I'll need a haircut soon, my fade is getting a little too long. Running my hands through my hair with a little water I do my best to tame the mess. Stepping away from the sink I quickly put on the students uniform, feeling a little out of place wearing it though it fits almost perfectly. As I step out of the hospital room into a long hallway I see Ruby, Yang and Jaune sitting there. I take a peek down both sides of the hallway seeing students walking around and what I assume to be other commoners and a few huntsman and huntresses moving about. Yang sees me leaving the room and she gets up along with the rest of the group.

"You almost look like a student but you are a little too old to be one." She remarks.

"Old? I'm only twenty-six." I respond. Yang chuckles as Ruby takes the lead.

"So this is the medical wing of beacon academy, where huntsmen go to train." Ruby says as we near the exit of the medical wing of the school. I feel a gut sensation that I'm being watched as I leave the school. After a short walk to the sparring room the group stops and we watch a group of students fighting each other.

"The students that are competing in the vytal festival have been training here to get ready for their matches." Jaune says, pointing out members from the school and people from the other schools that are fighting mock battles with their unique weapons each of which differs dramatically from user to user. Looking around the training room I spot a woman that I didn't take much notice of when we were leaving the hospital wing.

"So what's the average age of the students participating in this vytal festival tournament?" I ask the three of them.

Yang looks back. "I'd say about seventeen to twenty one." She looks over to Ruby "My sister is an exception though, she's only sixteen." As she playfully nudges her sister.

"I see, that's what I figured." I glance back over at the woman. She is watching over a duel between two students. I guess from her stature she is probably five foot eight and in her early to mid twenties or at least a little younger than me. I take note of her short pixie cut brown hair and her purple eyes. Her outfit leaves little to the imagination with her midriff exposed showing her well toned abs and her bust which is kept in check by a leather top with bronze colored metal plates leaving her cleavage exposed. My eyes are drawn to a decorative metal star that is connected to her shoulder plates. Her legs are covered in armor similar to Pyrrha's legs plates but missing her right thigh plate with brown leather knee high boots that resemble riding boots which match the color of her pants and two exotic hand axes holstered on the opposite sides of her hips. She has what I could best describe as an amazonian air too her.

I snap back to Ruby, Yang and Jaune. "So are your teams going to be participating in the tournament?" Ruby excitedly nods her head and Jaune says "Yes, team JNPR will also be competing." Ruby seems excited to keep the tour moving along as she leads us to the main building of the school. From looking around it seems to serve as both an entrance and where school administration is held.

"This is the main hall of the school, the student don't spend much time here but it's where visitors come and the teachers and staff have offices here." Ruby says as she points behind a large ornate wooden counter manned by a mix of male and female school staff members. Ruby then points to two large doors flanking the sides of the offices behind the counter. "The door on the left leads to the classrooms and the door on the right leads to the dorms, they are kinda packed right now with students from the other schools." She says as she points out some students in uniforms that are different of the beacon students uniforms.

I notice that behind one of the groups of students is the same woman I was looking at earlier sitting at a small desk writing on a piece of paper and also spot a door behind her with the words library written above it.

Looking to Ruby "Hey can you show me the library? I should probably read up on some of the history of remnant, maybe that will help me understand this world."

"Sure, the library is open to the public and you will probably see Jaune in there studying." Ruby says looking over to Jaune as he smiles and runs a hand through his hair.

"I've been studying hard for the tests that are coming up." He replies.

We begin to walk over to the library entrance and once we get close enough to the woman's desk I break off from the group and pull out the chair opposite from her and take a seat. She's startled by this and fumbles with the paper she was writing on.

"I'm not familiar with the law here but stalking someone is illegal where I come from." I say staring the woman down. Her face goes bright red with the frustration that she has been caught. I glance back at the gang to see them standing off at a distance looking worriedly at me. She re-composes herself and leans forward in her seat staring me down now as she regains her composure.

"My name is Viola LionMantle and I was tasked by Glynda Goodwitch to keep an eye on you." She speaks with a firm tone and there is a spark in her eye that I can appreciate. I reach across the table offering my right hand to her for a shake. She takes it in a firm grip which I return, noticing her calloused hands probably from her using those twin axes. I won't lie to myself Viola is very attractive. I introduce myself.

"My name is Marc Dawson it's a pleasure to meet you Miss LionMantle." I say as I break the handshake and lean back in my chair.

"Viola is fine Marc." She says with a hint of frustration in her voice.

I need to figure out what the powers at be have planned for me. I'll play along for now but rattle the cage a bit just to test the waters.

"So Viola what business do you have with me other than being my stalker? By the way, make sure to thank Glynda for assigning such an attractive handler to me." I grin as Violas face turns bright red again figuring I found a button I can push. Glancing over to the group I see Yang has a hand to her mouth trying suppress her laughter. Looking back over to Viola I see her glaring at the gang. The teens move away a little and Viola returns her gaze back to me as I sit there smiling happy with myself. She clears her throat.

"My business with you is simple, I am assigned to be your handler because you are an unknown variable during this turbulent time." Viola pauses pondering her words then speaks again. "The headmaster of this school has assigned me to evaluate your usefulness and would like to make you an asset." She says with an assertive and confident tone indicating that she thinks she has the advantage, which she does. I might as well play along. I'm a nobody if I disappear the only people who would care are Ruby and company assuming the worst possible outcome. I take a quick glance at them and then look back to Viola.

"All right then I'll do as you ask but don't keep me in the dark if we are going to be working together." I say and Viola seems to relax a little bit. I assume that she was expecting to have to really twist my arm to get me to do something but I know I'm in no position to bargain.

"I'm glad you are willing to work with me. You will be staying with me as per Glynda's orders." She says. I get up from the table and walk over to Ruby,Yang and Jaune.

"I'll make sure to watch your fights during the festival, but it looks like the people in charge have plans for me." I say to the three of them. Jaune offers his hand and I shake it and he says his goodbye. Yang punches my chest and whispers.

"You two have fun." She whispers with a smug grin from ear to ear. Ruby looks a little sad then cheers up

"I really want to see how your weapons work." She says with her familiar chipper tone and a smile. I return her smile and head back to the table and the gang take their leave. I notice on the table that my watch and my FN Hi-Power are sitting on the table along with a few magazines, a device that looks very similar to a smartphone from my world, and what looks like cash. I take my seat. Viola gestures to the items in front of me.

"This is a gesture of good faith from the headmaster of the school." Grabbing my watch and putting it on and looking over to the large clock in the room adjusting it to match the time.

"So who is this headmaster you keep bringing up?" I ask wanting to know about this mysterious person behind the curtain that has taken interest in me.

"Everyone here calls him professor Ozpin, he is the leader of the school and the political representative of the huntsman that graduated from bacon academy." She finishes as I grab the smart phone like device and stuff it into my pants. I grab my pistol putting a loaded magazine in it, charging it by racking the slide, and pushing it into the waistband of my pants before grabbing the cash on the table and placing it into my right front pocket.

"So this professor Ozpin is a pretty influential guy then?" I say as I get up looking over to Viola.

"It looks like the school is getting ready to close down for visitors." She says, and I

check my watch seeing that it's seven pm. She gets up and we both walk out of beacon academy and we catch a taxi taking a short drive to the residential district of the city we are let out on just the outskirts of that district.

"Don't want to point out the obvious but the only possessions I have are the clothes on my back or, I assume, in lockdown somewhere." I say gesturing to the school uniform.

Viola chuckles "Don't worry we will be getting you new clothes tomorrow but for now let's just get you settled at my place." We begin the walk to her place. I spot what seems to be a gas station then look down at my hands too see that they're trembling. I pause, making a fist with both hands to ward off the tremors.

"Hey can we stop at the convenience store there so I can get something to drink and maybe a snack?" I ask, a white lie as I feel the stress from the past two days before I went unconscious are catching up from me I need something, anything familiar.

She simply nods and we make a quick detour into the small store. The register is manned by a woman in her late teens with bunny ears on top of her head. She greets me as I enter the store and I simply smile and wave back at her. Seeing where the drinks are kept I grab a bottle of water along with what looks like a six pack of beer in glass bottles then head down the aisles and grab a bag of chips. Out of the corner of my eye I catch that Viola is grabbing a drink out of cooler and making a stop in one of the aisles. I reach the cash register and the girl behind the counter quickly comes over to me and begins scanning the items I had left for her. I glance past her looking at what appears to be tobacco products quickly glancing over them and point to one of the boxes.

"I'll take two boxes of those." I say as I grab a lighter and add it to my small pile of groceries. The attendee totals up my items and I pay the her. Her face scrunches up but she takes my money and I watch her have to break a few of the bills I gave her and hand me my change. I quickly pocket it and take my bag while I peel off the plastic wrapping of the box checking the contents inside of it. I grin to myself that they are indeed cigarettes which I can tell from the smell that matches what I'm used too. Viola finishes up and looks over at me with concern. She probably can tell that I'm stressed out of my mind. We both take our leave from the convenience store and continue walking.

Viola breaks the silence "I don't mind you smoking but don't do it inside of the apartment." She says, reaching into the bag she got from the store and opening up what looks like a sports drink before taking a sip from it. She then looks back to me like she wants to say something but is keeping it too herself.

"That's fair, your place your rules." I reply, stopping as I pull the cigarette box from my my breast pocket, pull a cigarette from it and place it in between my lips. Returning the cigarette box and grabbing the lighter I attempt to light the cigarette but my hands are shaking too violently. I don't even notice that Viola has moved in front of me until she cups my hands helping me hold them and the lighter steady so I can light my cigarette. Pulling on the cigarette I feel the nicotine hit my system and my hands stop shaking. Viola quickly pulls away then stands next to me. I look over to her taking another pull from my cigarette.

"Thank you for that I know it's a bad habit but I've been through a lot the past few days." I say, still thinking to myself how absurd the situation is that I'm currently in.

"That's understandable, you did rush in to help a bunch of strangers for no reason. Why did you do that? And just to let you know, I know the about story you told those students." Viola says with a guilty look on her face as she looks over at me.

"So the room was bugged, huh? Then I'm going to guess that piece of paper you had was notes you were taking. The real question though is do you believe what I told the students?" I finish pulling the cigarette from my lips flicking off some of the ash returning it and taking another drag and exhaling. Viola tilts her head to the side.

"Well I was shown all of the equipment that was taken off of you at the hospital during your surgery." We round a corner. "The headmaster of Atlas, General Ironwood, along with Glynda and Professor Ozpin and a few teachers from the school all came to the conclusion that your uniform and equipment were completely alien to us, but I do believe what you told the students though I have some questions of my own." Viola says with a slight flourish of excitement towards the end.

"Well," I say while lifting up the bag containing the six pack of beer "you can ask me as much as you'd like over these."

Viola giggles lightly "Deal." she says

We keep walking and I dispose of the cigarette in an ashtray on top of a trash can. Noticing that Viola is leading me to a very nice apartment complex.

"So, this where your place is?" I ask and she quickly nods and leads me to her apartment. She opens the door to a studio apartment as I follow her inside taking a look at the apartment with a full kitchen a living room with a couch and a coffee table in front. There is a hallway leading to what I assume is the bedroom and the bathroom. I take off my shoes and leave them neatly by the front door. Heading over to what looks like a refrigerator I open it and place my six pack inside before grabbing one out of the six.

"Grab me one too." Viola says from a small dining table next to the kitchen. I quickly retrieve another one from the six pack and take a seat across from her opening her beer and placing it in front of her then opening mine and taking a swig from the bottle. The taste is very close to one I'm familiar with, lonestar beer which is my preferred basic beer when I'm not drinking craft beer. Taking another drink from the bottle brings a smile to my face. I put the glass down seeing that Viola is doing the same. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a sealed envelope which she opens up and places several documents out in front of me.

"If you could take a look at these documents." Viola speaks with a serious tone.

I reach out and place all of the documents in a neat pile before going over each document. After going through the documents I place them all next to each other and look at the whole picture. There is a group of three individuals that are poorly described. There isn't even a photograph or even aliases to work with just the physical traits of the three male individuals along with their hight and a rough estimation of their age. Towards the end of the document it cites what is written as the "fall maiden attack" which denotes an attack of an unnamed woman by a group of three student aged individuals, two female and one male and of no known or assumed affiliation to any of the schools or kingdoms. After looking over the document one last time I notice a name that's present in all of the documents.

"Salem." Something primal sends a shiver down my spine like a bolt of lightning.

"So this is what we have to work with?" I ask after taking a drink from my beer bottle seeing that it's already half way done.

Viola lets out a frustrated sigh as she leans back in her chair. "It's not much to work with but we can talk about that tomorrow. I'm curious about these organizations of yours, delta force and the CIA." Viola says.

"Well to keep it simple Delta force is a elite special forces unit under the command of the joint special operations command of the United States military which pulls elite members from all branches of the united states military." I take another sip of my beer and see that Viola is leaning forward listening intently.

"Delta force specializes in high risk hostage rescue, counter terrorism, counter espionage, direct action, special reconnaissance and high-value target capture or elimination." I say, finishing my beer and placing the empty bottle in front of me.

Viola leaned back in her chair. "So you would be considered an elite warrior in the United States of America?"

"Not to toot my own horn but yes that's correct." I reply to her. She stiffens up before asking the next question.

"So you have no grimm where you are from but mankind can be just as monstrous on their own, that is what I would assume the reason your government has people like you and your unit in their arsenal is." Viola locks eyes with me as if she's trying to stare into my soul. I polish off my beer.

"I've seen mankind at both its best and its worst and everything in between, I'm no saint, I can recall every life I've snuffed out." I say knowing that she can see in my eyes that I'm a killer.

Viola keeps peering into me, I don't know what she's looking for but I'm guessing she found it as she takes another sip from her drink.

"I won't press any more but I Can tell you are a good guy." She says as she finishes her drink, gets up, and heads over to toss her empty beer bottle into the trash can. I glance over at the clock on the wall seeing that it's ten at night as Viola returns to the table taking her seat.

"We will go over what information we have tomorrow morning but lets get some sleep, I have a feeling you need it." She looks over to the couch then back to me smiling which seems too put me at ease.

"I'll get you some blankets and a pillow, are you fine with sleeping on the couch for now?" She asks with some concern in her voice.

"The couch will be fine." I say downing the rest of my beer, picking up the leftovers and tossing the empties before depositing the rest in the refrigerator. Viola gets up and heads into her room before quickly coming back with some sheets and handing them to me. I take them and head over too the couch and make myself a makeshift bed. I smile looking forward to a good night's sleep In an airconditioned apartment.

"You can shower first if you'd like." Viola says from inside of her room.

"My sleeping arrangement is ready I'll take one shortly." I reply as I head over to her room. I see that Viola has pulled off her armor plating as she points to the bathroom and take note of her bedroom seeing that its well kept with sparse decoration and few awards hung on the wall along with her bed, a dresser, and a weapon rack. I make my way into the bathroom seeing that it's surprisingly large for a studio bathroom. I close the door behind me then strip down. Heading to the shower I look at the knobs for the shower in slight confusion. I grab one of the knobs turning it and getting water to flow but it's cold. I reach for the other one which seems to be the heat, making some minor adjustments and getting the water just right before I climb into the shower.

The water hits me and I feel everything wash off of me. I stand there for a bit simply enjoying the luxury of a hot shower. Looking up I see Viola's shampoo and conditioner. I quickly wash my hair and body. I turn off the water and grab a towel before heading over to the sink. I look down at the sink seeing viola had left me some basic toiletries, then get to work on brushing my teeth. Quickly finishing I see a bag of clothes on top of the toilet and head over to it opening it up to find a plain white muscle shirt, boxer briefs, and some light running shorts. I get into the clothes left for me, they are a little big but they fit. I look over the bathroom to make sure I didn't leave a mess. Feeling satisfied I make my way to the door opening it to see that Viola is sitting upright in bed reading. She jumps slightly quickly marking her spot in the book before climbing out of the bed and leaving the book on her night stand.

"Your turn." I say. My voice trails off as I notice that Viola is only wearing a black sports bra and matching boy shorts panties. Her normal outfit didn't leave much to the imagination but I take this opportunity to commit her figure to memory in a quick glance and head out of the room. I'm stopped by her grabbing my arm as I'm about to escape.

"Did you look?" Viola asks as I look behind me to she that her face is glowing red as she is glaring at me with frustration and embarrassment and that she had wrapped herself in a sheet.

"I did … it was hard not to." I say. Viola doesn't seem to be to happy about my answer but I can't pin down if she's more mad at me or herself for this current situation.

"Look we are roommates now and we share a bathroom, we were going to eventually see one or the other half naked or naked." I say flatly. Viola lets go of my arm but she still keeps eye contact with me.

"It's fine, I haven't had to share a living space with anyone since I was at beacon academy, we will talk about this tomorrow morning, go get some sleep." Viola says in a softer tone as she lets go of my arm.

"Good night." I say and Viola echoes it. I make my way for the couch in the living room. Climbing under the sheets, I make myself comfortable. I think back to seeing viola half naked and a smile creeps onto my face as I close my eyes and let sleep take me.


	5. Rest&Reconnaissance

I am roused from my sleep by the sound and smell of breakfast being cooked, only just noticing that I had partially rolled off of the couch. I get my bearings and shift myself with my arms to sit upright on the couch. I spread my arms out to stretch letting out a long yawn which seems to catch Violas attention. She stops what she is doing and heads over to me from the kitchen holding a mug of coffee while wearing an oversized shirt with the logo of beacon academy on it. She holds out the mug to me and I take it.

"Thank you." I say as I bring it to my lips to take a sip feeling the hot coffee hit my pallet warming me up and shaking off what little drowsiness I had from last nights sleep.

"You're welcome." Viola says smiling as she heads back to the kitchen to finish up breakfast. I follow her into the Kitchen.

"So what's on the menu?" I say moving next to her. Looking at what is cooking on the range I see that she is making cheese omelets.

"Cheese Omelets." Viola says taking the pan and placing the food on a plate and handing it to me, taking the offered plate I see the something is catching her eye which is making her blush.

"Is my bed head that bad Viola?" I ask. Viola shakes her head no as I grab my plate and hers then place the two on the kitchen table. Turning back to face her I see that her face is only getting more red as her eyes dart around the room. She makes her way to the fridge to get a gallon of milk from it. I move next to her at the fridge as she closes it she jumps slightly at my proximity.

"Viola what is it?" I ask in a serious tone. She doesn't say anything she just points at me below the belt taking a step back and looking down. Fuck. Morning wood. Now my face is as red as hers.

"I'm sorry, this early in the morning I have no control over it." I say. A proud smile crosses my face as I turn and head to the bathroom to relieve myself. Coming back to the kitchen seeing that Viola is already sitting down at the kitchen table I join her and begin to go to work on the omelete she made, eating it quickly but taking my time to properly enjoy the meal.

"So I need some clothes outside of the school uniform I'm wearing." I say trying to disarm the situation. Viola slams her fork down onto the table, looking at me with a relieved smile on her face.

"Yes let's go shopping after breakfast." She says as she polishes off what's left of her breakfast then gets up and cleans off her plate, placing it in the dishwasher. I do the same after finishing off my breakfast, satisfied in a home cooked meal. Viola quickly runs off to her room.

"So are we going shopping now then?" I ask out loud to no response. Well, I guess we are going now I shrug to myself. Leaving the kitchen and heading back to the living room I grab up the school uniform and quickly put it on, lifting up one of my arms to check myself. Taking a seat on the couch I reach for the remote to the TV. I hear Violas door open as she walks into the living room wearing a simple light purple sun dress that hugs her figure and ends just above her knees with short heeled boots that end just above her ankles and a simple purse slung over her shoulder. She locks eyes with me.

"The shopping district isn't too far from here, we will get a cab to get there." Viola says confidently as If she's used to it. I get up and meet her at the door.

"Hey I'm broke and I don't plan on stealing clothes while we are going shopping." I say bluntly to Viola and she smiles gleefully.

"Don't worry, Ozpin gave me some money to handle your living expenses." She says with a superior tone to me.

"Wait, you were given money for _my_ living expenses?" I say feeling offended that I can't be trusted with my own money. Viola sees that the situation has struck a nerve with me.

"Don't worry I'll make sure you have the essentials to get by." She says as she opens the door to her apartment and I follow her out feeling a sense of dread at the control Viola has over my life. We both get into the taxi and I spend most of the time taking in the sights and trying to commit them to my memory. We stop at the shopping district and head into what I assume is a mall in my world. I follow Viola into a large shop and she turns to face me with a serious look on her face.

"Meet me back here in a hour." she says with a deadly serious tone pointing to a clock and then disappears into the store leaving me alone. Well I guess it's time to find some clothes then. I wander around for a little bit trying to find the men's section eventually making it to the right part of the store. I walk into the department and quickly scour it making a quick shopping list before picking up an assortment of pants, shirts, socks and underwear. I feel satisfied with my choices even though I had to learn their sizing system. I head over to the shoe department picking out a pair of running shoes, cowboy boots and hiking boots. As I take a seat on the bench trying them all on to make sure they fit I notice a woman that seems to be following me. I put the running shoes on deciding they are better than the school loafers I was given to walk around in while making sure to glance over at her every other moment. Not liking an unknown party watching me inside of a large shopping center, my paranoia rises. Looking down at the open shoe box I see an snub nose Colt detective special and a few loaded speed loaders.

"Shit." I say under my breath. Quickly glancing around I pocket the speed loaders and place them in my right pocket then reach down with both hands pushing the cylinder release to see that it is loaded and then quickly palming it and placing it in my right pocket. Gathering up my clothes and shoe boxes I place them in the cart while glancing back over at the woman to get a better look. She's in her early twenties, roughly five foot six with long blond hair that ends just below her shoulders and is kept in one large braid. She is wearing a light brown vest that keeps her modest bust in check, a loose fitting button up white long sleeve shirt that is unbuttoned, and tight form fitting blue jeans with a messenger bag on her hip and shoes that resemble vans. Grabbing the handle of my cart I push it into the aisle of the shopping center to make it back to the spot where I'm supposed to meet Viola. My left hand instinctively moves into my pocket grabbing the grip of the revolver. Glancing down at it then looking back to where the woman last was I see that she has disappeared. My grip tightens on the revolver as I begin to scan around. I pass a large display only to hear a crash of metal seeing that a cart has bumped into me and the woman who has been tailing me had crashed hers into mine. She smiles at me. My heart races, cursing myself for letting someone get the drop on me. My eyes quickly lock onto her hands seeing that both of them are still grasping her cart.

"Oh I'm sorry about that I should really pay better attention on where i'm going." she chuckles.

Bullshit you did this on purpose. I take the opportunity to get a better look at her. She has light blue eyes and a very light complexion with freckles covering her face. Backing my cart up slightly.

"No its fine Im sorry, can I help you Miss?" I say to her while keeping my eyes on her hands.

"Nilla, it's nice to meet you and yes you can help me." Nilla says energetically as she offers her right hand to shake. I take the offered hand shaking it firmly as I let go of my grip on the revolver and withdraw my left hand.

"Marc Dawson, pleasure to meet you Nilla." I reply back to her. With her left hand she goes to her vest and pulls out a small notebook.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about the breach incident?" Nilla asks with disarming smile on her face.

"I don't know what I can tell you, I had just got into town and I took refuge when I heard the explosion and smoke in the distance." I say keeping a straight face deciding off the bat to keep that info to myself. Honestly I was just in the right place at the right time to do something. Nilla reaches into her messenger bag and pulls out her scroll holding it out for me to take.

"What do you think of this?" Nilla says confidently as I grab the scroll seeing that it's a video of me charging the king taijutsu grimm with the M240B. Fuck. This lady had me cornered to begin with.

"Yes that's me are you a reporter or something?" I ask begrudgingly. Nilla swells up with pride hearing me say that.

"Yes, though I am freelance. Do you mind If I ask you a few questions?" Nilla asks as she takes the scroll returning it to her messenger bag.

I exhale loudly in defeat. "Sure go ahead." I say, grabbing the cart as I begin to walk my way back to where i'm supposed to meet Viola.

"Do you think Vale's government was remiss in not taking action against the rising incidents of white fang attacks that led up to the breach attack?" She asks, her eyes boring into me while I take a few seconds to figure out a response.

"Well I'm not from here so I don't really have an opinion on the first part, but curbing the growing boldness of the white fang should be a top priority of Vale's government." I say confidently before asking Nilla, "What is the White fang exactly?" Thinking back to my Conversation with Ruby and the gang trying to recall any details that were brought up by them. The question stops NIlla in her tracks.

"You don't know what the White Fang is?" She says in a bewildered tone.

"No." I reply

"The White fang is a fanus activist group which has become increasingly radical in the past few years acting more violently like in the Breach attack which was foiled but still caused a lot of damage to a section of the city with the grimm that poured out of the tunnel below the city." Nilla informs me pausing.

"Was Atlas' assistance in Containing this attack helpful?" Nilla tacks on the question at the end of her statement.

"It seems that the breach was pretty well contained by the huntsman that responded once one of the holes in the ground was sealed up, but late air support is better than no air support and the robots sure made the clean up operation easier. Can't tell you much more, after that I passed out from blood loss." I say smiling and scratching the back of my head knowing that I had successfully cheated death again.

"Wait you almost died?"NIlla says with concern.

"It's par for the course. I survived an explosion a few days earlier and then I survived the breach." I say confidently, proud that I survived my dance with death, though questioning a bit whether I truly had survived that explosion. We both keep walking as I near my meeting spot with Viola.

"Your equipment and uniform are quite different from what the Atlesian military and the huntsman academies have, are you associated with any of them or any of the huntsman guilds?" Nilla says with excitement.

"Yes I'm a member of Delta Force." I say proudly. The statement hits Nilla in the face like a bucket of cold water.

We both reach my meeting point. Nilla is about to speak when I spot Viola and I notice that Nilla rushes towards her to both Viola's and my surprise.

"Viola LionMantel, as a previous winner of the Vytal festival who do you think is going to win this years Vytal festival?" Nilla asks almost forgetting that I exist as I move my cart next to them. I can see that Viola is a bit flustered that I led this reporter to her and I see that she had picked up quite a few items for ponders for a few moments then clears her throat to speak.

"As of right now I would say it's a toss up between Penny and Pyrrha on who would actually win this years vytal festival, from what I've seen of their matches." Viola says confidently. Nilla quickly pulls out her scroll and makes a few notes in it then looks up.

"What about Yang of team RWBY? She's not in the running?" Nilla asks back.

Viola ponders the question for a bit. "Yang is a capable fighter but she lets her emotions control her and she uses her semblance as a crutch to win the fight at the last moment, she lacks control in comparison to Pyrrha." Viola says as she places her bags on the ground and Nilla keeps furiously writing notes onto her scroll.

"If the younger you were in the finals with them who would you be most concerned with?" Nilla says not looking up from her scroll.

"Out of the three of them Penny would give me the most trouble, I don't believe she has won a single fight by having to go at it at a hundred percent and none of her opponents have pushed her that far yet so it's hard to gauge her strength which would make preparing for that fight difficult." Viola says picking up her bags looking over to me. I can tell that she wants to go. Then glancing over to Nilla as she's putting away her scroll.

"So I guess you are going to have to drop your moniker as the untouchable queen with Marc, it's nice to see that you are out dating." Nilla says before turning around and waving to us as she walks away. I slowly look over to Viola seeing that her face is glowing red with frustration and that she is as stiff as a board.

"Untouchable queen huh?" I say sarcastically.

Viola swipes at me with her right arm but it simply passes through me as she storms off to the checkout line. Well that makes sense then. Following behind her I ponder her semblance and how useful it could be in combat, slowly coming to the conclusion of why she was chosen to be my handler. Grinning morbidly to myself as I realize that If I was to be eliminated it would be a difficult fight and one I hope to avoid.

We reach the check out line and both Viola and I place our clothes on the table, I glance over mine making sure that I didn't forget anything while also taking a look at what Viola got. Seeing a mixture of different types of tops, bottoms, pants, a few pairs of shoes, wait, hold up, black lingerie? And not just one set, several, and I can tell just by looking this is not the cheap stuff, this is high class quality lingerie. The cashier quickly and methodically rings up all of the clothing placing them in large bags. I watch the display for the total shoot up everytime one of Viola's items gets rung up. The cashier says the total out loud.

"One hundred and fifty thousand lien." the cashier says. I slowly look over to viola with fear and she picks up on it.

"Don't worry Marc this is only a scratch in what your allowance is." Viola says smugly as she hands the cashier MY card. The chaser quickly take the card and swipes it and hands it back to Viola.

"Well I wasn't expecting this was how I was going to buy you lingerie." I say, looking over to the cashier and seeing that he has a grin crossing his face as he hands both Viola and I our bags. We both head out of the mall.

"Well I hope you enjoyed shopping on my dime." I say as we work our way through the concourse of the shopping mall to the food court so we can leave.

"Dime?" Viola says with curiosity leaning in to hear my explanation.

"It's a small unit of currency that can be used as an idiom in conversation where I'm from." I say back to her.

"So what's with the people walking around with animal tails and ears? Are people born with it or do they get cosmetic surgery to look like that?" I say to Viola quietly. Taking advantage of her leaning into me I also sneak a peek down her sun dress.

"Oh, you don't have fanus where you are from?" Viola asks. I shake my head no.

"Well faunus are a subspecies that have human anatomy along with animal features and traits such as natural night vision." She finishes, I make sure to mentally note down faunus night vision.

"Well that's good to know, it's a little jarring to see people walking around like that." I say pondering more to myself as I look around and spot a few more faunus walking around in the mall as we make our way into the food court. The smells hit me like a hug from a family member making me feel at home while also making me hungry.

"Viola, let's grab Lunch, my treat of course." I say with extreme sarcasm Viola cutely smiles and nods.

"Also, do you think I need a haircut? I haven't had one for almost two months." I add. Viola stops turning to face me looking me over.

"No it's fine." She says in a definitive tone. I reach up running my hand through my hair.

"Lets stop so I can get it cut, it's a little to long for regulation." I say as I withdraw my hand.

"That's fine I know a place where we can stop." Viola finishes as we fully enter the food court taking this chance to look around to see where I want to eat.

"Viola! It's so good to see you!" A female voice calls out from behind us.

Viola stiffens slightly then relaxes as we both turn together to face the female voice. We see a couple pushing a stroller with a blue haired toddler sitting in it behind us. The woman has long flowing blonde hair with a tint of red in it, soft dark blue eyes, a light complexion and stands at what I'd guess is five foot seven. I'm guessing she is of similar age to Viola. She is wearing black skin tight pants that remind me of yoga pants from my world and wearing a loose fitting light red but not pink blouse that does little to conceal her oppressive bust.

The Man standing at her side is shorter than me, about five foot ten I'd say. He has light brown eyes and a light tan with his long reddish brown hair being kept in a ponytail that ends just above his shoulders. He has an athletic build and is wearing what is similar to a branded outdoors fishing shirt from my world, cargo shorts, trail runner shoes, and a nice but sensible chronograph watch on his wrist.

"I'm Carmine." the blond woman says introducing herself looking over to her husband pausing he takes the initiative offering me his hand which I take to shake.

"Barry Pinehelm, nice to meet you…" Barry says with a friendly smile on his face.

"Marc Dawson it's nice to meet you Mr and Misses Pinehelm." I say back to Barry while looking over to Carmine. I smile back at them as I let go to wave at the toddler in the stroller that seems to be preoccupied with the action figure in his hand and is completely ignoring me.

" is my father, Barry is fine." Barry says with a light chuckle. Gritting my teeth at the line I ignore Barry as keep my attention on his son. Seeing that this task is futile I straighten myself up.

"Marc, Carmine and Barry were my teammates when I was at beacon academy." Viola says with a faint tone of discomfort.

"So are you two still working as huntsmen?" I ask seeing this as an opportunity to learn a bit about Violas past and what's going on. Barry smiles, I can tell he's reminiscing.

"I still work as a huntsman but running logistics for the local hunters guild in Vale, directing missions and handling the logistics of training and recruiting new member of the guild." Barry says proudly as Carmine picks up where he left.

"I've taken a break from it." She says resting a hand on her belly which is in what looks like the second trimester of her pregnancy. I try to pull my foot out of my mouth.

"I figured but I try not to assume so I don't make an ass out of myself." I say to try and break the tension.

"Do you want to sit down and have lunch together? Viola and I were about to get something to eat." I announce looking over to Viola seeing that she is glaring at me, probably because I flipped the script on her. She breaks eye contact and her mood lightens as the group finds a table at which to sit down. I take my seat next to Viola and lean toward her.

"Hey can you give me MY card so I can buy myself some food?" I say with a sarcastic tone. Viola rolls her eyes and discreetly hands me my card. I take the offered card feeling empowered that I now have it in my posession. I quickly put it into my pocket knowing that I won't be giving it back to Viola. I get up out of my chair and the rest of the group rises shortly after me. Carmine goes to the stroller grabbing her son out of it then walking over to Viola and handing Him over to her. There is a look of panic on Viola's face but she smiles and holds the toddler close to her chest.

"You watch Jay for me and go catch up with Barry, I'll show Marc around since he doesn't seem familiar with what's available here too eat." Carmine says warmly. Viola caves and simply nods back to Carmine. My eyes drift back to Jay to see that his hand has grabbed Viola's right breast and that his eyes are locked onto mine. I grin back at Jay for his boldness, as I watch the three of them make their way to the food stands seeing that Barry is already talking Viola's ear off. I turn to face Carmine to see that she has a mischievous air to her like she had just committed a crime and got away with it.

"So what's good to eat?" I ask as I follow Carmine. We walk past several food stalls each serving food that I am familiar with. Carmine stops and points at a few of the stalls.

"The food here is good but those stalls have the best food." Carmine says. I spot that one of the stalls is serving asian food and I quickly get in line for that stall. Carmine follows behind me.

"Decided already, have you Marc? … How did you and Viola meet?" Carmine asks in an inquisitive tone. Turning to face Carmin as she stands next to me in the line.

"Well actually Viola was stalking me through beacon academy and I had to confront her about it in the lobby." I say smugly knowing why Viola was following me. Carmine face scrunches in concern at my statement. She mumbles something to herself that I can't quite pick up before composing herself.

"I didn't realize that it had gotten that bad." She says in a serious tone before grabbing my hand and looking me dead in the eye with motherly concern.

"No it's not like that, Vales government has assigned her to watch over me." I say to carmine to reassure her which only causes her to grip my hand even tighter and she doubles down with her concern reaching a boiling point.

"Ok! Viola and I have been assigned a mission. We can't talk about it. The initial meeting between the two of us didn't go so well. I'm staying at her place for now, she's taking good care of me." I say frantically trying to get control of the situation it seems to work as Carmine calms down and lets go of my hand.

"Viola is a little hard to be around but she's got a good heart, just... be patient with her." She says as we are now up to order.

I quickly glance at the menu, order something that looks familiar, and cover what Carmine orders. She thanks me as we make our way back to the table. Carmine stops, looks to me, and speaks in a hushed tone.

"Be good to her. I'm rooting for you." Camine says in a serious tone before she walks to the table, places her food down, takes Jay from Viola, and takes her seat. Viola seems relieved but misses the company of Jay. I take my spot next to Viola and begin to work on my food. We all start eating our food and there is a bit of silence between us. I look over to Jay who in a booster seat and is eating some chicken nuggets. I watch in horror as he dips his fingers into the sauce then grabs a nugget and places it into his mouth with his fingers to eat it. I quickly go back to my meal trying not to think about what I just witnessed. Barry breaks the silence.

"So Viola, Ozpin is putting both you and Marc to work again?" Barry says flatley, glancing over to Viola seeing that she has paused what she is eating.

"That's right, we don't have a lot to work with, but with Marc's insight we can probably get it done." Viola responds confidently. Wait, was that a compliment I just heard? I ask myself before my thoughts turn to Ozpin, the man that seems to be pulling my strings. To what end though I have no clue, other than the vague hit list that Viola and I have been assigned. We continue to eat our meal and I look up to one of the TVs that are hanging in the food court, seeing what I assume is the Vytal festival being broadcasted and noticing both Jaune and Pyrrha along with a red haired girl wielding a large hammer and a black haired boy with a single pink highlight fighting another team in an area. I do my best to listen in as I watch the fight but the ambient noise of the food court makes it hard to hear and closed captions haven't been turned on. The fight seems to be going in their favor until both teams begin to argue with each other, or at least that's what i think they are doing. I glance over to Viola to see that she is watching the same TV as I am. I can see that Viola is simmering with frustration. I look over to Barry who is leaning back in his seat smiling happily to himself. The food court erupts in a cheer I glance back over to the TV to see that Jaune's team has won.

"That fight brings back good memories." Barry says proudly. Carmine chuckles as Viola sighs loudly in disagreement.

Barry then leans forward looking at me with an accomplished grin on his face and I can tell he's about to tell me this magnum opus of his time a beacon academy.

"There I was looking at the brackets, I could feel the dagger like stairs in my back from the other team leaders. I knew that every team in the vytal festival was gunning for us because of Viola." Barry says as he gestures to my frustrated partner, glancing at Carmine whos sitting there smiling, probably having hard this a thousand times.

"We had been faced off against the star team from mystral, not the best matchup." Barry says then Carmine chimes in.

"The bookies had our odds at two to one." She says with an annoyed tone.

"Babe please I only bet most of the money that we earned on the missions we did. Anyhow, after doing my research I devised a cunning scheme." Barry says, but as he's about to continue Viola cuts in.

"Yeah, a cunning scheme at my expense." She says rolling her eyes.

"All right then master tactician, what happened on the day of the fight?" I ask my curiosity piqued.

"My plan hinged on two factors, first, to take advantage of the fact that Viola would be the other team's main target." Barry says as he recounts the day.

"It's good to know that you see me only as bait for the other team." Viola retorts dryly.

"Yes Viola you did make very good bait, now before I'm interrupted again the second part was having a favorable arena and we got one. Our side of the arena was a mountain landscape, as the match was starting I told Viola to move with the rest of the team into a low part of the mountain as I took overwatch on the mountain to cover our flanks. The enemy team took the bait and I set the trap all I had to do was wait to spring it." Barry says with excitement as he reaches the climax of the story glancing over to viola to see that she run a hand through her hair.

Barry continues,"I had brought a lot of fire and wind dust ammunition to the match. While I was making my way to my overwatch spot I placed the dust rounds into the side of the mountain where Viola and the rest of the team where fighting, they were too focused on Viola and once she got into position the rest of the team backed away and BOOM! I blew up the side of the mountain causing a landslide which hit the enemy team and Viola, but she was fine, she just phased out of it and we took home the win which Viola spring boarded off of to win the Vytal festival." Barry finishes and leans back in his chair basks in his former glory.

"I still to this day find bits of dirt in my hair. A warning would have been nice." Viola grumbles to everyone getting a light chuckle out of Barry and I. Carmine just smiles to herself, looking at Barry.

"So what did you do with the winnings?" I ask. Barry is about to speak but Carmine interjects.

"Well Barry won't be able to touch the money for another twenty years, I invested it while we split up the rest and had a very nice dinner to celebrate Viola winning the tournament." Carmine says fondly. I look over to Viola.

"So what did you spend the money on?" I ask.

"Ohh I just bought some more clothes and lingerie." She says flatly. Carmine leans over to Jay running her hand through his blue hair.

"I have to thank you Viola for helping me decide that one day when we went shopping, Barry really liked what you helped me pick." Carmine says with motherly love and she picks up Jay to embrace him. My eye wanders over to Barry smiling proudly to himself before looking over to Viola. I see that she is looking at Carmine and Jay blankly before a look of shocked realization crosses her face and it flushes red as she crosses her arms and glares at me.

"Took a little while for that check to cash, huh?" I say back to Viola smugly seeing that I popped her bubble. She begins to open her mouth to speak.

"Its Jay's nap time, it was a pleasure meeting you Marc. You two should come over sometime, Barry got a new grill he is dying to use." Carmine says disarming the situation between Viola and I. They both get up grabbing there food to toss what's left over and we exchange numbers and goodbyes before we part ways. Viola and I take what's left over and place it into the trash then we make a quick pit stop to get my hair cut before making our way back to her apartment. Viola lets me inside and I place my clothes on the coffee table in front of the couch before kicking off my new shoes and taking a seat. Leaning back I run my hand through my freshly cut hair moving it in front of my face to see that its covered in hair. I get up and head to the kitchen as I pass Viola putting her items down on the kitchen table. I get to the sink to wash the loose hair off my hand.

"Viola I'm going to take a shower so I dont shed all over the place." I say to her seeing that she nods in acknowledgment as I make my way back into the living room grabbing a change of clothes and placing them under my arm before I head to the shower. I close the door behind me and turn the water on, stripping down as the water heats up. I jump into the shower to quickly wash my hair. A few moments later I hear the door open, I fight the urge to peek out of the shower curtan as I then hear Viola turn on the faucet to the sink making the water go ice cold immediately which brings back memories of boot camp.

"Since we are living together now we should talk about some ground rules Marc." Viola says as she turns off the faucett and the heat quickly returns to the shower.

"Yeah especially since A few of them were probably broken this morning. What's on your mind?" I reply back to Viola as I finish washing my hair. I go for the body wash liberally applying a bunch to the wash cloth then going to town on myself.

"This is the only bathroom and If you have to use it at night just be as quiet as you can when you come through my room." Viola says flatly. I nod to myself at her request.

"Got it, I don't want you accidently putting one of your hatchets into my skull If I startle you at night." I say chuckling lightly to myself I hear Viola giggle lightly on the other side of the curtain as I begin to rinse myself off.

"Where do you want me to put my new clothes? I'm assuming you don't want me to leave them on a pile in your living room." I ask.

"I'll clear some drawers in my dresser and you can keep them there." Viola says politely.

"Got it, which side is going to be mine so I don't accidently open up a drawer full of your sex underwear?" I ask with a grin on my face, hearing Viola turn on the faucet to the sink again making the water go ice cold again.

"Just to let you know that trick won't work on me, I'm used to cold showers from my time in the military." I assure to Viola. I hear her grumble from the other side as she turns off the faucet and walks out of the master bathroom. I get out of the shower, quickly dry off, put on a pair of blue jeans and a shirt, and make my way back into the living room. I see that Viola is sitting on the couch and the TV is turned on. I take a seat on the opposite end of the couch and see what she is watching. It looks like the matches are over for the vytal festival but they are still broadcasting other events, some of which seem to be a mock battle going on to demonstrate new weapon tech, along with fights between veteran huntsmen and feats of strength. Time slips from me for a little bit but I snap out of it. Wanting to try something in my down time I recall how I summoned the M240B and the Colt detective special at the mall. Ok, time to try something.

I stare down at the open floor in front of me and ponder what I need. Thinking back I remember that most of my gear is covered in my own blood, and that I've burned through most of my ammo. I sag into the couch then close my eyes and focus on a plate carrier, one with which I'm intimately familiar, imagining every inch and added extras. There is a faint pop, I open my eyes to see that a crye precision cage plate carrier with all of the attachments I would use is lying on the floor where I was looking. I reach down and pick it up, feeling that it has some heft to it I can tell that it contains the armor plates.

"Well alright then." I say proudly which seems to catch Violas attention.

"Where did you get that?" She asks inquisitively as I place the plate carrier next to me on the couch. I point to the floor in front of me with a cheeky smile. Violas face twists in frustration.

"OK, OK, relax, just follow me, I looked at the floor thought about it and then there was a pop and it was there." I say handing the plate carrier to her.

"You just thought about it and it was there." Viola says skeptically even though she is holding the proof in her hands.

"Here, I'll try it again." I say looking down at the floor again. I think about a uniform and ammunition then close my eyes and hear a slightly louder pop this time. I open my eyes to behold two large ammo cans and a neatly folded set of bdus, one in multi cam, the other in matte black. My head spins for just a few seconds then I snap out of it, making a mental note to try and not abuse this. Looking over to Viola I see her dumbfounded at what just happened.

"How can you do this? Is this your semblance?" Viola says frantically. I shake my head no.

"I didn't know what a semblance was until yesterday." I respond, still confused at how am able to do this.

"This stuff here is from my world, I thought about it and there it was." I say trying to make heads or tails of what I just did. Viola gets up, moves in front of me, grabs my right hand and places it on her chest. She closes her eyes and I can tell she's trying to focus.

"Umm … Viola, what are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm checking your aura, focus on something." She says back to me calmly

I try to keep my mind off of how close my hand is to her right breast but I fail miserably and I end up taking further stock of her figure. Viola is very attractive. I can feel my heart pound in my chest as my eyes wonder all over her body, giving me an opportunity to really appreciate the beauty that her sundress only accentuates. I look back up at Violas face only for her to open her deep violet eyes with a bit of confusion. We both stare at each other for a few moments.

Viola breaks the silence. "What are you focusing on?" She asks.

"You." I say simply. Viola's face immediately turns red with embarrassment and I'm pretty certain that mine does the same. She lets go of my hand and takes her seat back on the couch.

"What did you find out?" I ask looking over to her seeing that she is trying to compose herself, she takes in a deep breath and looks back at me.

"I couldn't sense any aura in you. Even people who haven't unlocked their semblance or trained their aura have at least a trace amount, I couldn't sense any in you." She finishes.

"I see." I say to myself as I go back to watching the TV feeling the hours slip by as the sun starts to set.

Viola's scroll begins to ring loudly which startles the both of us. Viola grabs the phone and I hear someone talking on the other end of the line but I can't make it out.

"Yes, understood." Viola says as she hangs up the scroll and gets up.

"We have a mission there is a car coming to pick us up in the next thirty minutes." She says professionally as she walks quickly into the room and closes the door.

I get up from the couch grabbing the black BDUs and changing into them smiling to myself that they are the right size as I finish getting them on. Kneeling down I grab my plate carrier and throw it on, making some minor adjustments to the fit, checking my Ifak, admin pouch,magazine pouches, and radio however much use it will give me. Going over to the two ammo cans I pop them both open to see that one is full of standard M4 magazines with a sixty round Magpul Drum mag resting at the bottom of the can while the other one has two neat stacks of M885A1 and what looks like 75 grain Bonded soft points.

Viola opens the door to her room she is wearing the armor and outfit that I first met her with and her hand axes are resting on both sides of her hip.

"I'm ready to go, hope they have my rifle." I say as I grab my Hi-Power, holster it into my plate carrier, grab the ammo cans, and wait for Viola at the door.

"You will get your weapon and your other equipment back at the staging area." Viola says professionally as she makes her way to the door opening it. We make our way outside of the apartment complex and down to the street adjacent to it. We are only there for a few seconds before a car pulls up in front of us. The window rolls down revealing a bald man in his mid thirties with eastern european features, a thick mustache, dark brown eyes, and wearing a navy blue tracksuit.

"I know your parents told you not to get into a car with strangers but you are going to have to ignore that for now." He says smugly, probably trying to break the ice.

I open the door for Viola and she gets in and slides herself over to the drivers side. I get in sitting behind the bald man and close the door before the car quickly takes off. I notice that the driver is a woman probably a bit older than Viola with red hair that is kept in a bun. She is focusing on the road.

"All right so what do you two know about the op?" The man asks.

I look over to Viola. She shrugs at me then I lean forward.

"Nothing." I say The man stays quiet for a few seconds then reaches down to the floor boards in front of him and hands Viola a folder.

"Good, I'll give you a quick briefing. I'm Sergey, nice to meet you two." Sergey says and he shifts in his seat to face us in the back offering his hand both Viola and I shake it. Viola opens the Folder then begins to thumb through the pages.

"Alright you two are going to do reconniance on a suspected White Fang weapons cache, they are planning something and stocking weapons and ammo for it but we don't know exactly what they're planning or when they're going to put it into action." He pauses as we make a turn in the car.

As he continues, I bend down to the two ammo cans and open them up before I begin to load rounds into the magazines, each round making a loud metallic click as its seated into the magazine.

"You two are the advanced team. You will infiltrate the compound in the warehouse district and confirm that the white fang are keeping weapons and ammo there. IF the suspected warehouse is a white fang cache then you will exfiltrate from the area via a car that has been placed two Blocks away from the warehouse. There is a team of Vale's Police and Atlas troops that will raid the warehouse once you two leave." Sergey says as he reaches into his pocket and hands the key to me. I take the key and hand it over to Viola.

"Needless to say we want to try and catch them with their pants down so they don't have time to move anything or destroy intel, so try to keep a low profile." Sergey says with a condescending smile on his face. I fight the urge to want to punch the man in his face as Viola nudges me and hands me the folder giving better details of the plan. I do my best to commit it to memory.

"What are the ROE?" I ask as I continue to thumb through the folder.

"The rules of engagement are to minimize conflict, lethal force is only authorized when fired upon." He says then leaning putting his right hand up to his mouth. "Unofficially though, if the cache is confirmed then you can go weapons free on your exfil." He finishes with a smile.

"What assets do we have on this op?" I ask as I look over the infiltration point which is marked through a large open air storage area of shipping containers and industrial equipment.

"We will keep in radio contact with the two of you and we have a drone stationed above to provide reconniance as you move through the storage lot. We have snipers as well but they are mainly there to cover the raid team as they move in, so don't expect any help from them." Sergey responds. The car makes a few more turns before stopping next to a warehouse's admin building close to the target building.

"Third door on the right and good hunting." Sergey says as Viola and I make it out of the car and head into the building.

The observation post is well positioned, taking advantage of a large machine shop with people and vehicles moving in and out at any time. Viola and I make our way into the building and we head to the third door on the right. Opening it we are met by two other operatives manning the post, too busy watching their monitoring equipment to take notice of us even though they knew that we were coming. One of them gets up and hands Viola and I our radios.

"These will be your communication devices for this mission you will be in communication with us and we will be watching your approach." The man says as the guy watching the monitor waves his hand from his seat.

"You will refer to us as pinnacle and you two will be shadow, understood?" says . Viola and I take the communicators which are a small earpiece which I put in my ear and Viola dose the same.

"March your gear is on the table over there." He points to a neat Pile of my stuff spotting my Mk18 and the M240B." He finishes and head back to his seat.

"Thanks ." I say as I head over to my rifle. I pick it up do a quick function check, and place a fresh magazine into it with a soft click, then pull back the charging handle chambering a round. I go for my helmet, place my GPNVG-18 onto the mount on the front, and put it on my head while turning on the OPS Core Rac sonic ears and adjusting them slightly as my hearing is augmented through the head seat.

"Alright, I'm ready to go Viola." I say turning to face her while slinging my rifle in front of me.

Viola nods in agreement.

"OK I'll take point on this." I say to Viola she ponders it for a moment.

"Alright, you seem used to this sort of thing." She says back to me.

"Take the fire exit down the hall, the fence has been cut into the storage yard. We will do a communication check when you get there." Says Mr. Pinnacle as he makes a few minor adjustments to his devices and gives us the thumbs up.

Viola and I both head out of the door and to the fire exit at the end of the hall.

"We need to take it slow and make sure to communicate, I'll cover you and you do the same, we will have to trust each other even though we have only known each other for the better part of two days. I know you are a skilled huntress and I'm some guy from another world but I've put in my work… we are going to have to trust each other and keep each other safe."

"Don't worry I trust you." Viola says back casually, I ponder the statement for a few seconds trying to decide if it was sincere or not but I put it to the back of my mind.

I open the door seeing that it has gotten pretty dark but Viola and I are still able to find the broken section of gate.

+++ **Coms check** +++

Pinnacle's voice over the radio cuts in over the radio silence of the night. I hold up my right hand in an ok symbol to Viola. She keys up her radio. "We hear you pinnacle." She says as her voice echoes in my head set I then key in.

"Loud and clear shadow out." I say then hearing the radio go silent,grumbling to myself. Shadow. What a stupid code name. Viola and I push through the broken chain link fence every little creak of the metal fence sounds much louder that what it actually is.

The storage lot is an industrial maze with very little natural or artificial light penetrating it. I flip down one side of my night vision goggles. They turn on and I make a few minor adjustments as they cut through the darkness making the dark storage lot more visible while casting it in a green haze.

"Viola, how far ahead can you see?" I ask her looking back at her seeing through both my unaided left eye and the right eye looking through the panoramic monocular. She gives me a strange look, probably because the night vision goggles give me an alien look. She looks past me.

"I can make out the containers, that's about it and we need to be mindful of the faunus' natural night vision." She says. That's right, our potential foe has natural night vision I remember. Just great.

"Stay close behind me so we don't separated." I say turning to face the industrial maze. As I step into it I flick my rifle to fire and turn on the IR laser which I can see with my augmented right eye. I move at a steady pace, pausing when we hit a crossroads within the open air warehouse.

 **+++ Go right then take the first left, be advised there is a foot patrol moving near you, we advise to avoid contact +++**

Pinnacle chimes in with the warning. As soon as he's done talking the sonic ears of my headset pick up the sound of at least 5 fanus walking to what I can tell is roughly our 10 o'clock. The shipping containers form a long narrow aisle which ends in a T intersection. I spot that one of the containers is pushed out from the aisle which gives us a nook to hunker down in.

I motion with my right hand for Viola to follow and we move to the nook as quickly as stealth will allow. By the time we make it to the nook I see the glow of the patrol's flashlight getting closer to the intersection.

 **+++ Patrol nearing intersection in thirty seconds +++**

Looking back for a moment to see Viola has drawn her twin hand axes, I then glance up considering our options if they turn down our aisle.

I can't climb up on top of the metal containers, it will make too much noise, and I can't fall back, we have to wait it out.

"Let's hope out luck holds out." I whisper to Viola. She nods silently in agreement and I can see she is tensing up.

"Breathe." I whisper to her then turn, leaning out from cover taking aim with my rifle at the end of our aisle. I estimate the range is seventy five yards as I steady the rifle on the side the metal shipping container. The light from the patrol's flash lights gets brighter.

 **+++ Ten seconds +++**

The footsteps get louder in my headset as I can hear small talk between the members of the white fang patrol nearing the intersection.

 **+++ Expect contact now +++**

I pull myself back into cover as the first member of the patrol enters my line of sight. I slow my breathing and try to focus on their movement. I see the patrol's flashlights being shined down towards us. The seconds seem to drag on for hours. I can feel my heart rate rising as my body begins dumping adrenaline into my system expecting a fight. The glow of the flashlights turns away from us and I start to hear footsteps moving away. Viola and I wait for a few minutes before moving back out of our nook.

"Well, our luck held out, don't want to test it though." I say to Viola as she exhales a sigh of relief.

"Let's keep moving, who knows when they will come back around." She says. I can see that she has relaxed a little bit. Im guessing she's not to used to stealth.

 **+++ Take the left then go right then left again +++**

"Time to go." I say both to Viola and myself as we quickly move away from the patrol and near the warehouse. The cover begins to thin out as we approach the target warehouse.

 **+++ Be advised, to your 2 o'clock there is a sentry that must be neutralized to get into the warehouse +++**

Figures this wouldn't be easy, Viola and I slowly creep to where the sentry is posted via the directions received from Pinnacle and the drone surveillance.

I then spot then sentry. He's standing by a stack of wood pallets. I can tell he's bored, he's not looking where he should be and is too busy messing with what looks like a shotgun making faint metallic clicks that I can pick up on from here. Taking a knee I push my rifle to my side and draw my pistol slowly, reaching into a pouch on my vest and pulling out a silencer for my Hi-Power. I slowly thread it onto my pistol. I look back at Viola and tell her to move to a position close by to back me up just in case. I begin to slowly approach making sure to keep what cover is available between him and me. Upon closer inspection I can see that he is wearing dark oil stained sleeveless coveralls and that he's a little shorter than me and roughly my age and that his arms are covered in thick scales.

As I get closer I notice a ball peen hammer sitting on top of a metal container. I reach for it with my right hand slowly lifting it off of its perch. I test the weight of it in my hand feeling that it is sufficient for what I have in mind.

I move behind him next to another stack of wood pallets as I wait for him to stop messing with his shotgun. He stops moving and the night around me goes silent. Now I take the few short steps to close the distance, raising the hammer over my head before bringing it down on the unsuspecting white fang member. The hammer connects with the top back of his head making a faint clapping sound. As I feel the recoil of the strike in my forearm the man crumples to the ground making little noise.

"Viola, grab his gun and hide it somewhere." I say to her in a hushed tone as I holster my pistol and lean down grabbing him by the collar of his coveralls to drag his limp body out of sight. Finding a suitable place to dump him I quickly check his pockets finding a radio.

Inspecting the device in my hands I open the battery compartment and quickly flip the batteries around before stashing it back into his pocket. I hear footsteps behind me and I get up and turn to face Viola. There is a look of shock on her face as she sees the dead white fang member. I reach for my rifle, bringing it too a low ready.

"Let move." I say to her which snaps her back into focus we quickly move to a metal side door on the warehouse and stack up on it. I reach for the handle to turn it slowly feeling resistance that its locked.

"Locked. I can try to pick it." I say to Viola only to see her phase through the door then hear the gear click as she unlocks it from the inside and opens it slowly with the hinges protesting lightly. She smiles proudly as I make my way inside and close the door behind me.

"That semblance of yours is pretty useful." I say to her.

"It is but its pretty draining on me." She replies back as she begins to scan the interior of the building.

Good to know, I think, making a mental note as I start to scan the long warehouse. We are in the center of a large rectangular storage wearhouse that's littered with neat crates of various materials. Down at the left hand side of the area I see a small admin building with the lights on. I can see movement inside, from the shifting shadows I estimate roughly eight people inside.

"Let's start our search away from the admin building." I say to Viola. She nods in agreement and we both move towards the right hand side of the building. We both get far away enough to feel safe to not be spotted.

Viola waves at me then points to an open container.

"There's another opened container, I'll check that one." Viola says. I give her a thumbs up with my right hand as she moves off to the other container.

Shifting my rifle to my side as I near the container I smell coffee. My curiosity is piqued as I stare down into the container, seeing that it is full of coffee beans. Well then I guess the white fang want to break into the coffee business. Leaning in I push my arm slowly into the coffee beans feeling resistance then hitting something hard, grabbing onto it, and pulling it out. I shift a lot of the beans and spill some of the onto the concrete floor of the building to reveal an exotic rifle.

Bingo.

I look over to Viola to see that she has pulled out what looks like a submachine gun. I hold up the rifle like a trophy bass to her. She nods in acknowledgment and we both put the weapons back in their respective containers.

Viola moves back over to me.

"Lets not overstay our welcome." She says with a hint of concern from being in the belly of the beast.

"Agreed." I say back to her readying my rifle then keying up my coms.

"Pinnacle, contraband confirmed and on site." I say over the radio. There is a pause then slight hiss of static.

 **+++ Understood. Shadow strike team inbound. Begin exfil +++**

We begin to make our way back to the entrance. My sonic ears begin to pick up some noise from the outside. I quickly find some cover and as I do I see lights being turned on in the exterior of the building and shouts of alarm being raised. Fuck, the patrol must have found the body. Just as that thought ends, the lights to the wearhouse turn on. My night vision goggle immediately turns itself off. I reach with my right hand folding it up away from my eye. Looking back at Viola I see she has her axes out in a predatory low ready by some containers behind me.

"Looks like our luck ran out." I say to her I can tell that she is expecting a fight.

Breaking from cover I move at a quick pace keeping my rifle trained as my muzzle sweeps the cover in front of me hunting for a target. I hear the sound of shouting and a large metal garage door being opened behind us as an unknown number of white fang pour into the building behind us and then hearing movement and shouting from the admin building as the members garrisoned there spread out into the warehouse.

"Viola you take point, I'll cover our asses, find us an alternative exit." I say to her, assuming that there will be people around where the body was dumped.

She quickly runs ahead of me with impressive speed. I follow behind her as we move to the opposite side of the warehouse while hugging the wall. I stop every so often to check behind me, hearing the guards get closer and closer and occasionally spotting movement through the cover of the warehouse.

Moving again to catch up with Viola I feel my heart rate rise as I see that she has stopped.

"Shit." Viola says, looking at the door. I follow her eyes to see that the door is locked with a metal bar and a heavy padlock. Hearing that the white fang guards from the admin building are almost on top of us.

"I'll take care of the door, you cover me." I say as I take aim with my rifle at the padlock and squeeze the trigger three times to shoot the lock off the door. Even with the silencer the report of my rifle echoes through the warehouse hearing more shouts from both sets of guards boxing us in.

"There they are!" A man shouts as gun fire begins to erupt at both Viola and I. Dropping my rifle and letting it hang I grab the metal bar, pull it off the door and open it. Turning away from the door to face the gunfire and taking cover I spot Viola already engaging the white fang guards from the admin building.

She is moving through them like smoke, two of the seven guards are already on the ground incapacitated from what I can tell. I take aim at a guard in the back trying to track Viola with his rifle. He stands out of cover only fifty feet from me, the red dot of my rifle settles in the center of his chest and I squeeze the trigger twice in quick succession. Both rounds strike his chest and I shift my aim quickly to his head then squeeze again putting a round through his face. He crumples where he stands.

I see that Viola has taken care of two more guards in that time and the rest have broken away from Viola and started running back to the admin building. For good measure I put down one more of the guards watching him fall to the ground as his buddy picks him up and pulls him into cover.

"Door's open, I'll cover you!" I shout to Viola as an energy round wizzes past my head. Viola turns and makes a break for the door.

"Fuck." I say feeling my blood boil as I shift my position to see that a group of three guards are pushing me out in the open while four more are trying to get a better angle on me from the opposite side of the building. I quickly prioritize my targets then lean out from cover taking aim at the far left white fang member.

Aiming my rifle for center mass I put a three round burst into his chest, feeling the rifle buck in my hands in a familiar way as he quickly crumples. Shifting my aim to the other two I dispatch them quickly. I hear Viola run out the door. Time to move. Breaking from cover dropping my rifle and letting my sling catch it I reach for a grenade on my vest with my left hand, pulling the pin as I reach the door. I turn around and lob it at the group of four guards trying to flank me, watching as it lands amongst them while I exit the warehouse.

 **+++ Expect enemy reinforcements +++**

Then static from pinnacle followed by a loud explosion. My headset blocks out most of the blast but Viola winces from the sound. I hear the faint screaming and groans of agony of the survivors.

"Pinnacle repeat, do you copy?" I say into the radio hearing only static back. Fuck, that's not good. I reach down to my vest and quickly do a tactical reload topping off my rifle.

"I'll help you close the gap and keep you covered so you can get in close." I say to her as we start moving around the wearhouse to make our way to our exfil vehicle.

"Got it just don't hit me." She says back to me and we begin to make our way through the maze of the open air storage.

"Don't worry I'm a pretty good shot." I say back as we make a break across the open ground, my sonic ears pick up a sizable group of footsteps moving mostly in unison. I pick up the pace to a sprint in response quickly covering the distance with Viola. Viola bounds ahead of me and crouches next to a large engine. She reaches into her pouch on her back pulling out two blue crystals that glow faintly and pushes them into the hilts of her axes which begin to crackle with a blue lightning and fill the air with the taste of Ozone.

Moving next to Viola I take a knee and lean out to take aim at where I expect the reinforcements to come. I feel Violas hand on my right shoulder and turn my head to look at her.

"I know how to get through the storage yard." She says to me. She moves away from me. I start to follow only to be interrupted by gunfire striking the cover I'm behind hearing the rounds wizz around me. Time to get to work.

Leaning out to take a quick peek I spot a group of six white fang members all of them wearing white tops with black pants and white and red masks and armed with a mixture of rifles and melee weapons just inside of a hundred yards of me. Rising over my cover I take aim at the closest hostile to me squeezing the trigger letting loose two rounds. He goes down to his knees and clutches his chest with his off hand. The other members move to cover him while the two of the members a male and a female begins to sprint at my position. The man is armed with a mace and shield while the female has two short swords. The suppressing fire from behind them slows as they close the distance quickly.

I flick my rifle to full auto and thumb the visible laser on the peq box on my rifle. Standing up and backing away from the two charging me I peek behind me only to see that Viola is fighting a small group of three white fang members. I hear footsteps on metal as two more goons run on top of the metal shipping containers.

Fuck, boxed in, gotta level the playing field. I bring my rifle to bear on the sword wielding goon as she leaps into the air. No time to think now.

Time slows at the red beam from my rifle centers on her chest. I pull the trigger feeling it break and the rifle bucks into my shoulder as it hisses angrily. The first few rounds strike her square in the chest and I notice a slight shimmer, then the second half of the ten round burst I let off perforate her chest and she lands in a crumpled heap in front of me. I shift over to the and mace and shield carrying goon seeing that he is almost on top of me. He holds his shield up to protect his torso. Centering the red dot of my rifle on his left leg and aiming for his thigh I let out a short burst and see the first round get stopped then hear a wet crack as the round smash his femur and he crumples to the ground screaming in pain.

I quickly shift my aim to his head and let out a short burst, splitting his head open like a watermelon. The three remaining goons fall back after seeing both of their comrades fall.

Turning to face the melee that Viola is in I see that she is almost surrounded as she constantly darts and weaves around the three white fang members getting in several hits as they try to push her into a spot to limit her mobility.

Pitching the mostly spent mag and replacing it with a fresh one I see a male white fang goon taking aim at Viola with a shotgun from atop a shipping container. Again I take aim and let out an extended burst and the man crumples where he stands.

I look back to Viola seeing that she is turning the tables on the goons she's fighting. One of them is clutching his broken left leg as he tries to crawl away. She disarms the second and he quickly runs away. I begin to take aim at the final goon but the angle is bad for me and I don't want to risk the shot so I move closer to them.

A figure jumps down from on top of the shipping containers and lands a solid hit on Viola's upper back which staggers her as she cries out in pain and surprise.

"Viola duck." I shout at her. She does which draws the attention of the two white fang goons. I quickly spray down the one wielding the war hammer leaving him bleeding out on the ground. Viola recovers and begins dodging and weaving around the last goon. She evades a sweeping swing that would of cut her in half by activating her semblance while bringing down her the axe in her left hand into the man's chest lodging itself firmly there. I move up next to her as she pulls her axe free, it makes a sucking wet pop and the goon collapses to the ground and expires. Most of the blood on her axe has cooked off from the arcs of lightning but her left hand is still covered in it, I can tell she's in shock, the first kill is the hardest.

I rest my hand on her shoulder and she jumps slightly.

"Viola you know the way back to the vehicle right? We gotta get out of here, more are coming." I say to her in a reassuring tone which seems to snap her out of it.

"Let's go." She says back faintly as we begin to sprint through the storage yard I follow close behind her and we make a quick exit.

 **+++ Shadow come in +++**

"Pinnacle we read you, good to have you back, we are out of the storage yard and heading to our Exfil." I say into the radio there is a short pause as we enter the backlot of another warehouse with a few cars and trucks parked.

 **+++ The silver truck is your escape vehicle +++**

"Understood." I say back to pinnacle catching up with Viola and spotting the truck.

"That's our ticket out of here." I say pointing at it. Viola quickly runs to the truck taking the driver's seat and turns over the engine. I hop into the bed of the truck as a round whizzes past me shattering the rear window.

"Drive!" I shout to Viola as I look towards where the shot came from and see two SUVs pick up speed to make chase. The truck lurches forward and I do my best to stabilize myself in the bed.

"Hold on I'm making a turn!" Viola shouts back and the truck rolls to the left. The road seems to open up as one of the two vehicles making chase begins to close the distance between us. Reaching into my vest I pull out the sixty round drum as a white fang member pokes his head out of the rear driver side door of the SUV and begins taking pot shots at us. A few rounds strike the rear of the truck making loud popping noises as the body is dented.

"That SUV is going to try and ram us off the road." I say to Viola as I seat the drum magazine into my rifle. The shooting stops from the closer SUV and the engine begins to rev loudly as It closes the gap. I can see that there are four people inside of the SUV. The driver begins to turn the steering wheel to ram us. As the SUV moves in closer I take aim with my rifle but at this range I can mostly just aim by instinct and I hold down the trigger letting rounds loose into the driver smashing the window and perforating the interior of the SUV as it loses control. I sweep the rest of the vehicle and the rounds penetrate through, most of them finding their target.

My rifle lurches back into my shoulder as it locks open from running out of ammo and starts to smoke slightly. I can feel the heat radiating from the barrel as the SUV fully loses control and smashes into a concrete barrier.

More round wizz past me and some hit the truck as the goons in the other SUV decide to start shooting at us. Ducking as I pitch the drum bag into the bed of the truck and take out a thirty rounder, I shove it into the magazine well with my right hand and hit the bolt release with my trigger finger, charging the gun with a soft metallic click. The truck shifts again to my right and I hold onto the side of the bed the best I can. I still end up getting thrown around a bit as we turn onto a larger street and Viola picks up speed. The weight of fire increases from the other SUV which is staying roughly seventy five feet away from us. Getting settled from the turn as I'm about to bring my rifle up I'm pushed down into the bed of the truck. I yelp loudly and my hands instinctively go to my chest.

Patting my hand over where I was hit I feel the warmth of the round that had struck me. The ceramic plate stopped the round but it feels like someone just hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer.

"Marc! Are you ok?" Viola shouts at me concerned.

"I'm good! The plate stopped the round!" I shout back to her. Fuck, gotta handle that SUV before they shoot the truck to pieces.

I shift myself back into my shooting position only to hear a faint pop and clanging in the bed of the truck looking down at the noise to see a HK M320 grenade launcher and a small bandolier of M433 high explosive dual purpose grenades. Setting my rifle in my lap snatching up the M320 along with the bandolier.

"Viola, on my mark keep the truck steady! I've got a surprise for these assholes!" I shout out to her as I push the release with my pointer finger and seat a grenade into the chamber before pushing it closed with my right hand.

"Got it!" She yells back at me. Shouldering the M320 I line up the sights at the pursuing SUV.

"NOW!" I yell and the truck steadies out. I adjust my aim slightly for the center of the windshield on the SUV then squeeze the trigger and hear a loud thump as the M320 slams into my left shoulder. I watch the grenade fly and smack the windshield, detonating instantly with a thunderous bang and shredding the cabin of the SUV with shrapnel. The SUV slowly veers off the road and crashes into a small drainage ditch.

I put the M320 down in my lap and take a deep breath. Viola slows down and makes a few more turns as we are leaving the warehouse district.

"I think we are in the clear." I say, half to Viola and half to myself. I feel the fatigue start to kick in as my body comes down from the adrenaline high.

"Agreed, it got a little dicey there." Viola says back in a relieved tone. Viola's phone starts ringing and she picks it up.

"Understood, we will meet you there." She says into the phone and then hangs up.

"Who was that?" I ask back though I have an idea of who called us.

"Sergey, he's not too far from here and wants to meet up." She says back.

The drive continues for a good ten minutes before Viola stops the truck. I hear her shift it into park and open up the door.

"We are here." She says as she gets out of the truck and closes the door. I climb out of the bed of the truck and take a look at it to see that the rear end of the truck has been shot to hell. I place my hand on the truck. Sorry we had to put you through this. I turn to see Sergey in his tracksuit with a cigarette in his mouth squatting in front of a clear bottle of liquor.

He waves for both of us to join him. I squat down next to him and he offers me the bottle. I take the offered bottle bringing it to my lips and taking a good pull from it. The fluids hit my tongue, yup it's vodka, or it tastes like it anyway.

"Thank you." I say back to smiles and nods back then stands up. I do the same.

"Just to let you two know, the mission was a success, even though we didn't expect the WF to jam us and the extra man power they had nearby. We got the guns and arrested quite a few of them." Sergey says casually, almost bored as he debriefs us.

"That's good to know, the mission got a little hairy but we pulled through." I look at Viola to see she's looking off into the distance. She snaps back into the conversation.

"Yes, Marc's expertise was very useful, I don't think I could have done this without him." She says somberly. Looking into her eyes I can tell something is bothering her.

"Well it's pretty late out so I won't be keeping you two." Sergey says. Viola and I look back at the truck and the rear bumper falls off hitting the pavement with a loud clang.

"Need a ride?" Sergey asks from the car having already gotten back in with his head poking out the window. Viola and I both hop into the back of the car and are dropped off a block away from Viola's apartment.

"I'd check your bank accounts by lunch tomorrow. Vale and Atlas thank you for your service, blah blah, you get the picture, good job." Sergey says before the car speeds off into the distance.

Viola and I begin walking back to her apartment in silence. She then dashes forward to a trash can and grabs onto it for support before vomiting violently into it. I move up next to her and begin to pat her back as she continues to empty the contents of her stomach.

"It's ok, let it all out." I say to her trying to comfort her, she dry heaves a few more times. I reach into the side of my plate carrier grabbing a water bottle and opening it then handing it to her. She takes the bottle and drinks from it then spits it out into the trash can before starting to actually drink from the bottle.

"Don't chug it, slow sips or you'll just throw up again." I say to her. She nods and slowly finishes off the bottle before tossing it into the trash can. She pushes herself away from the trash can.

"You good?" I ask. She nods back yes and we make our way back to the apartment in short order. Getting inside her apartment I take off my boots and pull of my plate carrier, leaving it by the couch in the living room. I then clear my pistol and rifle leaving them next to my plate carrier along with the grenade launcher.

"Hey it's late, hit the shower and let's go to bed." I say to her. She nods again leaving her shoes at the door and makes her way off to the master bathroom. I make my way over to the couch and wait for the shower to turn on. After a few moments I hear the shower get turned on and then I turn on the TV and begin aimlessly flipping through the channels. I land on the History channel. There is a weapon making show on called forged in dust™ it seems that one of the contestants has manufactured a perfectly functioning lamp which is also a rocket launcher. I watch a bunch of fake grimm being blown up on the TV with the contestants high fiving and fist bumping each other.

Viola walks into the living room wearing a large oversized white T-shirt that goes down to her mid thigh with a towel draped over her shoulders.

"The shower is free." She says as she continues to dry off her hair. I get up and make my way to the shower. After showering and changing into a muscle shirt and running shorts I head back into the living room ready for bed. Viola gets up and turns off the TV and heads to her room. I grab my pack of cigarettes and light and head to the porch to have a smoke. I think back on the day deciding to have Viola take me to a weapons shop tomorrow and to ask her how she's doing. Finishing my cigarette and heading back inside I make myself comfortable on the couch pulling a sheet over me. I stare up at the ceiling and close my eyes waiting for sleep to take me.

I don't know how much time passes but I soon start hearing movement from inside Violas room, then faint mumbling followed by a muffled scream. I slowly get up from the couch, grabbing my pistol and racking the slide to chamber a round as I move slowly to the door of her bedroom. I grab the handle and slowly turn it, fearing that the white fang have tracked us back to the apartment. I push open the door and quickly clear it seeing that Viola is failing about in her bed. Night terrors, a few of my buddies suffered from this. I walk closer to the bed and place my pistol on her night stand. I reach out and grab her shoulder.

"Viola wake up, it's a bad dream you are ok." I say to her softly. She begins to stir and her hand shoots out and pushes against my chest. Her breathing picks up and her face twists in fear.

"Viola you're safe here, it's ok, wake up." I say again and I shake her. Her eyes then open and we both stare at each other and I let go of her. She lets her arms rest on the bed.

"What are you doing in my room?" She says groggily.

"I heard movement and muffled screams from your room, I thought we were followed back to the apartment but you were having night terrors." I say back to her softly.

"I'm not having night terrors." She says with frustration back at me.

"Your new rug begs to differ." I say while pointing to the sheets that were kicked off the bed.

"NO, it was just a bad dream I'm fine." She says with forced confidence.

"It's ok for you to talk about it." I say softly as I get up, grabbing the sheets and putting them back on the bed.

"You know I have a little bit of experience with this sort of thing." I say reassuringly, taking a seat at the end of her bed. She rolls over and pulls the cover up to her head. I watch her for a few moments before I get up.

"Wait." She says meekly. I sit back down on the bed and watch over her. The silence is only broken by her shifting around.

"What do you mean by experienced?" She asks softly.

"My first deployment was Afghanistan which is a mountainous and arid country in the middle east. I was riding in the middle of a convoy when the front vehicle hit an improvised explosive device and the convoy was ambushed by the taliban. There was a taliban member on a hill overlooking the road shooting at the convoy with a russian PKM machine gun. I took aim at him and took him out before he could start suppressing the dismounting troops in the convoy. Once he was taking care of the troops in the convoy repelled the attackers and most of them ran away. We had to form a perimeter while the troops in the hit vehicle were being taken care of and collect the dropped weapons so they couldn't be picked up for use later. That's when I saw the man I shot. When the medics where done we got back into the vehicles. On the walk back I puked my guts up and we drove on to the forward operating base and that's it." I finish. I can perfectly recall every detail of the event and I can feel my heart begin to race instinctively.

"Did you have trouble sleeping?" She asks

"I did, it was my first combat experience, I had nightmares, but they were about me not being quick enough to save my fellow rangers." I say with a pang of regret, still not knowing the status of the team I was with on the raid that landed me here.

"Do you mind if I ask what you were dreaming about?" I ask back the room goes silent she shifts under the sheets again.

"It's all a blur of gunshots and clashing of blades and blood." She says and moves her right hand in front of her face then wipes it on the pillow next to her.

"I see, some of my nightmares where like that." I say back to her. I look towards the door the feel movement on the bed. Viola wraps her arms around me for just a few seconds then lies back down and pulls the sheets back up to her head.

"Can you stay until I fall asleep?" she asks faintly.

"Sure." I say back to her smiling. The room goes silent she shifts a few times then stops moving and I hear her breathing slow and even out. I slowly get up, grab my pistol, and head off to the couch. Placing my pistol on the coffee table and pulling the sheets over me I let sleep take me.


	6. Adulting

As I am slowly roused from my sleep by the light spilling into my room I slide out from the sheets and quickly put on some clothes. I make my way into the kitchen to be hit with the smell of hot coffee and breakfast, and the sight of Marc wearing running shorts and a white muscle shirt cooking away on the range. He looks back at me over his shoulder.

"Your coffee is on the kitchen table. Don't know how you like it so it's just black." He says as I spot the cup, grab it, and head over to grab some fixings for it from the pantry and refrigerator. I open up a milk jug and pour some into the mug then return it to the refrigerator, then go to a drawer, grab a spoon, put a tablespoon of sugar into the coffee, and mix in the milk and sugar bringing it to my lips taking a sip.

"Thank you Marc… what's on the menu?" I ask, moving closer to the range to take a peek at what he's cooking.

"You're welcome, pancakes and bacon this morning." He says, as I see that he is finishing up with the bacon. I take my seat at the kitchen table and slowly sip away at my coffee. I glance at the clock in the kitchen- 7:30 AM. I'm still feeling a little sore from the hit across my back last night. Recalling the events sends a shiver down my spine. I take another sip of coffee, get up, and head back to my room.

"Breakfast is done." Marc says from the kitchen as I hear plates and silverware being put out on the table. Seeing my scroll on the nightstand, I grab it, look back over at my bed, and see that the sheets are a mess. I exhale, thinking back that last night was some of the best sleep that I've had, I need to thank Marc when I get the opportunity. I walk back to the kitchen and as I take a seat I see that Marc is already eating his meal. I grab my fork and knife and go to work on the pancakes, taking the first bite. These are really good.

"Marc, did you use the pancake mix in the pantry?" I ask in between bites as I reach for the bacon and grab a few strips, breaking one in half and quickly eating it.

"I did, but the trick is to add in some cinnamon sugar and a little bit of vanilla extract to really get it to shine. Most pancake mix is a little bland. Do you like it?" He finishes as he goes back to his breakfast almost finishing it.

"Yes, it's very good. I didn't expect you to be a good cook." I say glancing down at my plate and seeing that I've already devoured my bacon and have almost finished the pancakes even while having managed to forget putting syrup on them. Taking another bite, I smile to myself at the simple but well-made breakfast.

"I'm no Michelin star chef but as a southern gentleman I am pretty competent home cook." He says with a proud smile on his face. I wonder to myself what a michelin star is as he gets up with his plate and silverware takes them over to the sink, rinsing them off and putting them into the dishwasher. I forget that thought as I hear a faint buzzing from my scroll. I look down at it to see I have a message, grab it, and open it up to see that it's from Sergey

" _Head to beacon there will be a debriefing General Ironwood and Ozpin want you to be there."_

Sighing as I slump down in my seat.

"What's wrong?" He asks from the kitchen.

"I was hoping to have a day off and watch the tournament, but we have to head to beacon for a debriefing." I say as I'm about to get up to bus my plate but Marc preempts me, quickly snatching it up, taking it over to the sink, and washing it.

"You hit the shower first I'll finish up here." he says with a smile then he goes back to work on washing the dishes.

I want to say something, as I sit still for a few moments, but I decide not to, feeling my heart race slightly. Getting up I make my way to my room, locking the door behind me as I head to the shower. I quickly go through my morning routine getting washed up and doing my hair then heading over to my dresser. As I open up my underwear drawer I blush to myself, recalling Marcs comment at the mall. I quickly decide on a more comfortable bra and panties putting them on before pulling on some white form fitting pants and a matching blouse. I then look at my weapon rack grabbing my belt and putting it around my waist then holstering both of my hand axes. I head over to the door, unlock it and head out to the livingroom to see marc sitting on the couch cleaning his rifle.

"The shower's all yours." I say. He looks up then gathers up some clothes and quickly rushes past me to the shower. I hear the door to the bathroom close as I take a seat. It looks like Marc was watching a documentary of the great war. I looked down to see Marc's rifle partially disassembled on the coffee table. It looks very plain in comparison with the shapes of dust based rifles. I grab a magazine, feeling its heft, and look at the exotic cartridges. I put it back down looking at the frame of the rifle.

I see _LMT_ etched into the frame in large letters then notice some smaller engravings on the frame.

 _Lewis Machine & Tool Company Milan, IL_

I figure to myself that is where it was built. I take my attention away from his rifle and go back to the TV, letting time slip by as Marc walks into the room wearing blue jeans and a blue flannel shirt.

"Let me put on my battle belt and I'll be ready to go." He says as he grabs a tan colored belt that has a bunch of magazines on it and his pistol in its holster. He quickly puts it on then finishes putting the rifle back together, charging it, slinging it over his shoulder, and letting it hang on the left side of his hip. He nods at me and we make our way out of the apartment, catch a cab, and take a quick ride over to beacon academy. We both get out and make our way past the students.

"What do you think they are going to go over in this formal debriefing? Sergey seemed happy with our results." Marc says casually as we make our way into the main building of beacon academy.

"I don't know other than Ozpin and Ironwood will be there and they will probably want to talk to the both of us." I say with a tinge of concern as we reach the front desk and the woman attendant tells us where to go. Marc and I work our way deeper into the school going past the staff offices to a large private office.

Sergey and his female attendant are waiting outside, he is wearing a different color tracksuit from last time and pouring out some clear fluids probably Vodka into a coffee mug from a dull metal flask.

"Good, both of you are here. We are going to be starting shortly." Sergey says then takes a drink from his mug as he opens the door for Marc and I. We both head in and find our seats. The room is well lit and Ozpin is sitting next to General Ironwood at the head of the table along with members of the atlesian military, probably the raid team leaders, and detectives from Vales police department.

Then there is Sergey's silent female assistant, Sergey himself, still brazenly day drinking in front of his general, Marc in his flannel and blue jeans, and me sitting here with in my blouse and white plants in stark contrast to the other members at this debriefing.

There is a moment of silence as everyone seems to be eyeing each other up. I glance over to Marc and he seems uncharacteristically tense. He catches me eyeing him and he leans in. My heart races slightly.

"I was watching the documentary about the Great War, but I didn't get to the part about the war crimes. Can you give me a quick run down to let me know we are in the clear?" He asks nervously.

Trying to process what Marc just asked me out of the blue I think back to the events of the night.

"Chemical weapons were outlawed after the great war and the use of black dust was also forbidden. Even though it's very effective against grimm but it does terrible things to people." I whisper back to him. He nods and I can see from his posture that he's more relaxed now.

"Now then let's get this meeting started." Says Ozpin pulling my attention away from Marc. I look at the head of the table to see that he is standing next to Ironwood.

"Just in case some of you don't know I'm Ozpin, headmaster of beacon academy." Ozpin says before Ironwood cuts in.

"First I would like to congratulate everyone here for the completion of last night's mission, I'm General James Ironwood and I would like to give a special thanks to Viola, Marc, and Sergey for the successful reconnaissance of the cache. Their efforts allowed our team to seize enough guns and ammo to arm a battalions worth of troops along with a lot of explosives and several crew served heavy weapons." Ironwoods says and then walks over to Marc and I offering us his hand for a shake. We both get up out of our seats at almost the same time and take turns shaking his hand before he returns to his spot and the front of the table.

"The mission was a success but we still believe that the White Fang is capable of attacking vale sometime during the vytal festival from the intelligence we have gathered from the captured White Fang members." Ironwood adds and the projector turns on to reveal an image of a masked, red haired man with two small horns on his head in a black White Fang uniform.

"This is Adam Taurus, he is believed to be the leader of the White Fang cell in vale and is masterminding the attacks along with a captured criminal named Roman Torchwick, however, we believe that Adam is also getting outside assistance from an unknown party." Ironwood finishes.

The other members of the meeting begin speaking, saying basically the same thing. It feels that the situation still isn't under control. Glancing over at Marc I see that he is taking notes on the file folder that is in front of him.

"Well good work everyone, meeting is over, I'd like for Viola and Marc to stay though." Ozpin says piquing my curiosity. I hear Marc shifting in his seat as everyone files out of the room then the door thuds closed. There is a slight pause and both Ironwood and Ozpin take a seat next to us.

"I'm sure you two have read the information that was given to Viola." Ozpin says. I nod yes and out of the corner of my eye I see Marc nodding as well.

"What we are about to discuss can only be spoken about in secrecy between the two of us Glynda Goodwitch and Qrow Branwen." Ozpin adds.

"Understood." Marc says and I echo him.

"Now to the actual objectives of your mission, with recent events we have revised some, we will go from the top down."

"The main objective is to capture Adam Taurus who has evaded capture for some time." Ozpin says then is cut off by Ironwood.

"Adam is a dangerous criminal that has killed before and will do so again, so your personal safety is more important than his capture." Ironwood says. Ozpin seems to be displeased at his statement but ignores it and continues.

"What I'm about to tell you two is very sensitive information." Ozpin says. I glance over to Ironwood to see his expression darken. I glance over to Marc and he looks back at me and shrugs.

"The suspense is killing me." Marc says off hand to Ozpin who seems to ignore the comment.

"In remnant magic exists and there are four women called the seasonal maidens that wield magical abilities." Ozpin says.

Magic? That's impossible! How could a group of four women wielding magic be a secret? My chain of thought breaks when I recall my mother recounting the founding of my tribe with the legend of a maiden that wielded the elements and of a peerless warrior who worked together to unite the smaller tribes and drive out the grimm and who formed the tribe I was born into.

"The maidens are key to the long term safety of all of the kingdoms especially since we do not know what the enemy plans on doing with their powers." Ironwood interjects in a serious tone.

"Ironwood is correct." Ozpin says then taking a sip from his mug.

"Let's start with what we know right now, the maidens have at a baseline the ability to control the elements and use them in combat. However, we do have records of more exotic uses of magic being performed by them but the records are vague and contradictory, but we have inferred that the magical potential varies from maiden to maiden." Ozpin stops for another sip of his coffee.

"When a maiden dies her power is passed onto another woman from what we have gathered either their powers go to a woman young enough to inherit those powers if that woman was in her thoughts as she passes or its completely random. There is an age limit, only women who are fertile can still inherit the maiden's powers. Which brings us to the fall maiden, Amber. Her powers well … half were leached out of her and she now lays in a coma from which we do not know if she will recover. We do not know the means by which her powers were stolen but we do know that Amber was attacked by a small team of three skilled individuals and one of them now has the other half of the fall maiden's powers. We assume these individuals are working for the enemy." Ozpin finishes looking over to Ironwood he shifts in his seat.

"The second objective is that we want you to go out and locate the other seasonal maidens to keep their powers from falling into the enemy's hands. Currently we have information, albeit spotty, that the winter maiden is somewhere in anima. The spring maiden ran away from Haven academy and we do not know if she is even alive or dead and the summer maiden disappeared roughly fifteen years ago, her whereabouts unknown." Ironwood finishes.

"I'm sure the both of you have plenty of questions and we will do our best to answer them." Ozpin says as he returns to his seat taking another sip from his mug.

"What is the normal life expectancy of a maiden?" Marc asks coldly.

The question hangs in the air as Ozpin ponders the question.

"The maidens have been sought after individuals and groups for a very long time, from our records and what we can infer most of them don't live past their forties." Ozpin says but something tells me that he knows more than what he is telling us.

"Got it, now you said magic? To me aura and semblance seem like magic, you're saying they're not?" Marc says inquisitively as I see him writing on a folder.

 _Aura and Semblance is "not" magic_

"If we find one of these maidens do you want us to recruit her?" I ask both Ozpin and Ironwood.

"If you can recruit them that would be preferable, but if they do not wish to come with you we can assign a team to watch them from the shadows." Ironwood says and Ozpin nods in agreement.

"What sort of assets will we have for this mission?" Marc asks as he readies his pen.

"Both of you will have a blank check for the operation, we will assist with transportation, also bear in mind that you two are operating unofficially for us don't expect a get out of jail free card if you get tangled up in local politics." Ironwood responds to Marc's question as he finishes making a few notes.

"And if we find any of the individuals working for the enemy are we to report what evidence we find to you and be advised on what to do?" I cut in.

"If we have solid evidence we will put together a plan to deal with that individual but it depends on what information has been revealed and it's safe to assume that they are highly dangerous." Ozpin says he gets up from his seat and pours himself some more Coffee.

"I think we are done here for the day, we will call you for any other missions, you two are on standby for now." Ironwood says as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out two checks and hands them to both Marc and I. I look at the check and am stunned at the lien amount. This is enough for a down payment on a house. I quickly fold up the check and place it into my pocket.

"Thats a lot of zeros." Marc says offering his hand to Ironwood to shake which Ironwood does.

"The Atlesian military wished to thank you two for your service, I look forward to working with the two of you again." Ironwood finishes as he gets up and heads over to Ozpin.

"You two are dismissed." Ironwood says. Marc takes the queue as he gets up and opens the door for me and we make our way out of the depths of Beacon academy. We leave and head out of the main building as a bunch of student walk in front of us to the fairgrounds.

"Where are all of those students going?" Marc asks as he turns to face me.

"They are probably heading to the festival that is held during the vytal tournament." I say, smiling to myself as I recall spending time there with my team when I was going to school here.

"We are here, might as well go and see if we can get some lunch." Marc says smiling.

"Sure, sounds good, let's go." I say as I take the lead making the quick walk to the fairgrounds. We stop at the ticket booth and buy some tickets for the games and then make our way into the fairground being bombarded with the sights, sounds, and smells of everything going on. We begin working our way through and I see that Marc is getting distracted with the food stalls and what the vendors are selling.

He then bolts over to the high striker game getting in line. I move over next to the game to get a better view. Seeing that it's Marc's turn he picks up the sledge hammer taking a few practice swings. He goes to swing but he stops and look over to me pointing at the bell on the high ringer.

"If I ring that bell you have to go on a date with me." He says, eliciting a few gasps and chuckles from the crowd. I'll humor him, it's a safe bet this game is rigged anyways.

"Deal." I say back feeling confident the odds are in my favor. Marc smiles and swings the hammer over his head striking the plate. I watch the weight shoot up and slam into the bell. Marc hands the hammer back to the attendant and walks over to me proud of his accomplishment. I'm still stunned having only just processed what happened.

"Umm ... well." I say trying to keep my shock in check and I can tell that im blushing.

"Not going to honor your end of the deal?" Marc teases me.

"Wait, you mean now?!" I say knowing that I'm only getting redder.

"We are here at the festival, might as well have some fun and get lunch." Marc says with his unique brand of charm.

"All right, there is a stall that has some really good food close by." I say as Marc moves to my side and we near the food stall.

"Hey, let's try that game." Marc says and he points to a game where you toss balls to try and knock the fangs out of a beowulf's mouth.

"Sure, this is Barry's favorite game here." I say as we step up to the booth and hand the attendant a few tickets before he gives us both a few balls. Picking one of them up I test the weight by tossing it from my left hand to my right, feeling the balls are light for their size. Taking aim at the larger fang I toss the ball over hand. I watch it fly and almost immediately lose its momentum striking the base of the fang and bouncing off of it with no effect. Glancing over at Marc to see that he's experiencing the same, as I watch his ball also ricochet off one of the smaller teeth. Grabbing the next ball I take aim at the tip of the tooth throwing the ball just over it watching it curve down just right striking the tooth and knocking it over.

"I hope that grimm has a good dental plan." I boast as I grab another ball and Marc just barely knocks over a smaller tooth. We both continue and only manage to win a simple key chain from the game.

"If I had baseballs instead of those trash light weight balls I could have easily knocked out almost all of those teeth." Marc grumbles.

"Baseball what's that?" I ask Marc with couriousty.

"Baseball it's a sport in my world, me and my dad would go to a lot of the local minor league games when I was growing up." Marc says with a hint of remorse in his tone.

"Did you play baseball growing up?" I add.

"Outside of playing catch with my dad and the neighborhood kids that was about it, I never joined a team." Says Marc he's looking off into the distance probably thinking about home.

"What's your father like?" I ask.

"I have a lot of respect for my father, he is a calm and a very fair man. I followed in his footsteps when I joined the army. He served in Vietnam and when he got out became a police officer then worked his way into the Texas rangers." Marc finishes. I can see in his eyes that it's not a easy subject for him being so far from home and not knowing how he got here.

I'm about to speak when the noodle stand comes into sight.

"That stand has amazing ramen and other noodle dishes." I say as I find two open seats for the stall taking mine and Marc takes his next to me.

Grandpa sees me sitting at the stall and comes over to get my order.

"Good to see you again Viola you sure have grown, Barry and Carmine where here earlier with their son. Do you want the usual?" He ask in a soft tone,as he looks over to Marc sizing him up.

"Yes grandpa the usual sounds great." I say.

"I'll get what Viola is having also." Marc cuts in.

"So Viola, who's this strapping young man?" Grandpa says as he comes back with two large bowls of ramen the sent of the pork and garlic spilling out of the bowl making me hungry.

"Grandpa this is Marc Dawson." I say seeing that Marc has offered his hand for a shake which Grandpa accepts with a cheerful smile on his face. He breaks the handshake with Marc and looks over to me as I grab the chop sticks in the Ramon bowl and begin to work at grabbing a bunch of noodles and slurping them up. I smile as I feel the ramen hit my pallet warming up my whole body.

"How's Nyx been? I haven't seen him in a while, is he still working missions in Anima?" Grandpa asks with some concern. My chest tightens at the question as I gulp down what I was chewing on.

"Nyx is fine I got a letter from him early this month he's good." I lie to Grandpa which hurts as I try to keep a straight face hoping he does not press any further.

"I see, well you tell him to come visit me when he gets back to Vale." Grandpa says in a firm tone as he goes to a cooler and grabs Marc and I a drink and places them in front of us.

"It's on the house." He says then leans closer to me.

"I thought you and Nyx would get hitched like Barry and carmine but I guessed wrong. Marc seems like a proper gentleman, I approve. Don't worry, Viola is a little dense but she's very affectionate once she opens up." He says in a reassuring tone.

I almost choke on my ramen coughing to clear my throat.

"No Marc and I aren't dating we are just on a mission together and he wanted to see the festival grounds." I say trying to set the record with grandpa.

"Actually, we _are_ on a date." Marc interjects.

Crap. I forgot I lost that stupid bet. Feeling my face go red with embarrassment I slump down in my seat.

"Yes me and Marc are on a date." I say, defeated. I want some sort of respite from this day.

"HEY MARC how have you been?" I hear a female voice say loudly in the distance.

I recognise the voice as Yang's from seeing team RWBY fight in the tournament and turn to see her along with Weiss, who reminds me on her older sister Winter, who I know from the few missions I've done with her, and who I assume is Blake from her black and white attire and her purple bow.

Yang immediately takes the seat next to Marc.

"What brings you to the fair?" Yang asks.

"Viola said that grandpa has the best Ramen in the town and I would have to agree." Marc says before he slurps up more noodles. I shift my attention over to Weiss, Trying to ignore Marc and Yang.

"Weiss I'm Viola Lionmantle I've worked with your sister Winter, she always spoke highly of you." I say as I offer my hand to her. Weiss seems to stiffen and takes my offered hand giving it a polite shake.

"Winter was just here in vale, she left recently though." Weiss says with excitement.

"Did you see the two versus two match we were in this morning?" She asks with some excitement.

"No, I missed it Marc and I had a meeting to attend how did the match go?" I ask.

"We won but it was a close match Yang really pulled through at the end after I got knocked out." She says with a hint of frustration in her voice.

"You are not happy about how the flight went." I say as I lean closer to Weiss.

"We won but … it was too close we just barely skated by." She says as she deflates a little from the realization.

"Every fight won't end in a clear victory or defeat, but how you won doesn't lessen the victory. You both fought hard but you and Yang were the ones who were able to pull through, make sure to learn from that." I say to Weiss as I see Yang has wrapped herself around Marc's arm and is pulling him away towards the carnival.

"Marc win me something from one of the games." I can her say faintly through the white noise of the crowd.

"We better follow her to make sure she doesn't get up to anything with Marc, you know how she is around older men." Blake says casually to Weiss and I as if this has happened before.

They both turn away and follow Yang and Marc, leaving me behind. I turn quickly, leaving plenty of lien to pay grandpa.

I feel nervous about Blake's comment about Yang, great now I have to protect Marc from a predatory eighteen year old. Embarrassment wells up in my gut but I can't pin down why. Walking next to Blake as we follow Marc and Yang to a game of chance where you pluck the quills out of a beowulf's back to win a prize.

"Yang seems to have a penchant to get involved with shady older men. She's destroyed a local nightclub that a mob boss runs by herself twice looking for information." Blake says almost as a matter of fact. What are these kids getting up to?

"So is Marc shady?" I ask Blake. She shrugs for a few moments.

"I'm only going off what Ruby and Yang said but he's not the criminal or bad guy kind of shady, just out of place. He shows up just as Roman torchwick crashes a train into that plaza, that's a little too convenient for my taste. Also my ears are still ringing from that bigger weapon he had." Blake says with an annoyed tone.

"I'm glad he was there, he helped contain the breach until Atlas showed up." Weiss adds.

"Thanks Marc, you're the best!" I hear Yang shout out and and give Marc a big hug which catches him off guard and the feeling in my gut wells up again. She breaks away and grabs her prize, an oversized stuffed bear. I walk in front of Weiss and Blake approaching Marc and Yang.

"Marc let's head to the bank it won't stay open for much longer." I say seeing that he's playing along with Yang's advances.

"It was good seeing you and your friends, but Viola is right I gotta deposit a fat check from a mission." Marc says with pride.

Yang glares at me but her expression softens as she looks to Marc.

"My solo fight is tonight make sure to watch it." Yang says. Marc smiles and nods. As Marc goes and says his goodbyes to Blake and Weiss I walk over to Yang leaning closer to her.

"Just to let you know me and Marc are on a date, don't want you running it." I say to Yang with a fake smile.

"Really doesn't look like a date to me." Yang says with a similar forced smile as she heads over to Weiss and Blake and they take their leave. I can feel frustration building from being burned by Yang's comment.

"Well you can't get along with everyone." Marc says reassuringly as he moves next to me probably figuring that I'm frustrated.

I sigh lightly. "Let's head to the bank before they close." I say, recalling the amount that was on this check. Sure this mission is vague and dangerous but the pay is good I say to myself thinking about all of the things I could buy. Or I could put it in the saving account I already have for a house. I do some rough math figuring that this check pushed me ahead of schedule with my savings. Marc and I leave the festival and we catch another taxi back into town getting out in the commercial district. I point out the bank to Marc.

"There, the Vale Trust & Credit union is where I do my banking, you can set up an account here." I say to Marc as we cross the street. I stop Marc before we get to the entrance of the store pulling out some papers and handing them to him.

"Those are your identity papers that where drawn up for you while you were in the hospital." I say as I see him skim over the documents.

"First off I'm twenty five not thirty years old, but then again years and months might work differently here." He says as he's looking down at the papers flipping between them.

"Most of that stuff is pretty much made up but it will make life easier." I say back. Marc neatly folds the paper and put them in his back pocket. We head to the entrance opening the door. We spot two armed guards and they motion to the two of us to a booth with a young man behind a thick screen of Synthetic glass.

"Please place your weapons in the tray and we will store them while you do business with Vale Trust & credit." He says. I glance at his name tag and see it says Lance. I smile back at him slowly withdrawing my twin hand axes, placing them in the bin, pulling my out my membership card and placing it in the bin with my axes. The bin is pulled into Lance's side of the booth and he grabs the card and swipes it. He looks at a screen out of my line of sight.

"Good afternoon Miss Lionmantle and may I ask who is accompanying you?" Lance says as he leans over look past me.

"This is Marc Dawson, he would like to become a member here." I say politely back, he smiles.

"Mr. Dawson please forgive the security measures, we pride ourselves on the safety of our customers and employees." Lance says in a professional tone.

"No, it's fine, I'll leave my guns with you once Viola is done." Marc says. I see that lance has handed me a simple receipt and I step away as Marc pulls off his belt, clears his rifle and pistol in a practiced motion, places both in the bin, and takes a receipt from lance. The guards open the door for a both of us. The bank is rather small but it specializes in banking for huntsmen and it's insured by the council which most smaller banks can't compete with.

A red headed woman with her long hair done up in a bun and wearing a form fitting business suit approaches us as we enter the main lobby filled with large leather sofas and heavy wood tables. There is a slight haze in the air from cigar smoke. I've gotten used to the smell but it still bothers my sinuses. On both sides of the room there are private offices and the opposite end have a familiar wide counter with tellers manning each booth. There are a few huntsman doing their banking here currently.

"Miss Lionmantle and guest please follow me, also your regular banker is out on vacation currently, we have a new hire he will get you two squared away." The attendant says as she opens the door to the small office.

The young man sitting behind the desk immediately shoots up from his desk and comes to greet Marc and I shaking both of our hands fervently. He is about five foot eight, clean shaven, with brown eyes and short blond hair that is slicked back with a little to much hair gel. He is wearing a simple but well fitted suit with a brown vest and a matching tie.

"Jasper, pleasure to meet you Mr and Mrs …." Jasper trails off.

"Viola I thought we were going to the bank not the courthouse." Marc say the statement hits me like a bucket of ice water as I go red.

"No Marc and I are not married." I say quickly trying to get a handle on the situation.

"No but we are on a date and it seem that hunts women move pretty fast so who knows." Marc shrugs with a smug grin on his face. I look over to Jasper who is visibly confused being caught off guard by Marc's antics and see him return to his seat.

"So what can I do for you two?" Jasper says nervously leaning back in his seat pointing to both of the seats for us to sit. We both take our respective seats. Marc shifts in his seat and hands Jasper his check. Jasper takes the offered check looking it over.

"We are glad to have a new member at Vale's T&C." He says almost quoting from a script. I also reach into my purse and place my check on his desk at the same time, might as well deposit mine. I look at Jasper and I can almost hear the gears seizing in his head.

"Umm … do you want to open a joint account?" He asks as his eyes shift nervously between us.

"Huntsman couples are given all sorts of government sponsored benefits. such as high interest savings,low interest loans and retirement plans along with saving accounts for any kids you have." Jasper rattles on.

"Thanks for the info Jasper but right now I'd just like to open my own bank account." Marc says as the awkward air is sucked out of the room. I even relax a little in my seat and so does Jasper as he chuckles softly.

"Well then Mr…." Jasper says looking to Marc.

"Dawson." He says as Jasper hands him some paperwork. I hear Marc's pen working across the papers as he begins to fill them out.

"Miss Lionmantle give me a few moments and I'll have your check deposited. Which account would you like me to put it in?" He says as he begins to type away at his terminal filling the room with a hollow plastic clicking.

"Put it into the savings account please." I say as I catch in the corner of my eye that Marc has finished up with his paperwork. Jasper grabs up the paperwork and leaves my receipt in front of me. I glance down at it seeing that the check has put me ahead of schedule by a few years. It's dangerous work but the pay is good.

"Now Marc before I deposit this check would you like to buy some gold or silver with this initial deposit?" Jasper asks, Marc pauses for a few seconds then smiles.

"Sure, can a I get an ounce or two of gold?" He requests jasper nods and hand Marc a receipt.

"I'll go get that gold real quick, if you like I'll meet you two out in the lobby." Jasper says as he makes his way out of the office. There is a few moments of silence then Marc get up and hold the door open for me.

"Thank you Marc." I say as I make my way through the door and we both head too the entrance.

"Here you go ." Jasper says as he hands Marc two small gold bars two plastic cards a bank I.D card and his checking card.

"Thank you Jasper I look forward to bringing you more money." Marc says. Jasper smiles back, reaches into his pocket, and hands Marc a cigar.

"I look forward to work with you." Jasper says with a smile as Marc takes the offered Cigar.

"Thank you." Marc says as he puts the Cigar to his lips chomping down on it.

We both take our leave of the bank collecting our weapons before we walk to my apartment. Rich burnt tobacco fills my nostrils as I look over to Marc to see that he has lit his cigar, shrouding his head in a thin haze of smoke as we make our way back to my home. It's not an unwelcome smell, my father loved smoking cigars and the scent always seemed to linger on him.

I really need to write to my parents, it has been a bit since I've sent them a letter. A weight forms in my gut from my absence from the tribe and I grit my teeth feeling myself being pulled in several directions. The mission is here, not to mention my friends I think, my thoughts turning to Carmine and Barry, but the responsibility to my tribe hangs over me like a storm cloud of guilt.

"Viola is there a grocery store on the way back to your place?" Marc asks clearing the storm in my mind.

"Y-Yes there is one not far from where I live." I stumble on the words as I am pulled away from my thoughts.

"Good, let's make a stop there, it's been almost four months since I've had a steak and i've been craving one for a while." He says

"That sounds good and we can catch the Vytal festival by the time we get done with dinner." I say doing the scheduling in my head as we round the corner nearing the grocery store, we both make our way into the entrance and head inside.

"So Mr. not michelin star chef, what's on the menu tonight?" I ask as we stare down the aisles of the grocery store. Looking over to Marc I can tell that his mind is racing as he rubs his facial hair with his left hand for a few moments.

"Let's do steak with baked potatoes, greens, and onions." Marc says as a matter of fact as he looks to me.

"Lead the way." He says to me and we make our way to the produce section. I watch Marc descend over it going over every plant and inspecting it and grabbing up what he deems necessary for tonight's dinner.

"Find everything you need here?" I ask entertaining myself seeing a surprising seriousness from Marc as he simply nods back to me. Leading the way to the dairy section Marc grabs some butter and we move over to where the butcher is, there are a few customers ahead of us and Marc takes the opportunity to figure out what he wants to get as he eyes over the different cuts of beef.

"Do you prefer any particular cut of steak?" Marc asks as it seems that he has made up his mind.

"I'll trust you can pick out a good steak." I say back then see that the butcher has moved over to us.

"How can I help you?" He says, Marc straightens himself out and points at two ribeye steaks.

"I'll take both of those." He say as the butcher nods and quickly wraps up both steaks. Marc takes the offered steaks and turns back to face me.

"Let's grab some toiletries so I'm not burning through your expensive shampoo." He says. I lead him to that aisle and he begins to put up the items that he needs.

"It's kinda expensive but the stuff that Carmine uses is even more ridiculous." I say to Marc as we walk to the checkout lanes.

"Makes sense, she seems the type." Marc says dismissively as we check out and leave the grocery store making the short trip back home.

"How's our time looking?" Marc says I check my scroll, looking back over to Marc.

"We have plenty of time." I say as we walk towards the apartment complex making our way over to my building. Walking inside I see Mrs. Hardtree leaving her apartment with a black trash bag.

"Viola, good afternoon." She says cheerfully looking over to me then her eyes dart over to Marc taking measure of him.

"Viola I don't believe I've had the opportunity to meet this man." She says in an inquisitive tone.

"Marc Dawson, I'm assuming you are Violas neighbor?" He says

"Yes I am and you can call me Mrs. Hardtree." She say then looking over to me.

"I'm glad you finally decided to bring a man home with you, I was about to try and set up nephew but it seems you finally decided to make a move. You have good taste in men." She says. I feel my face going red again and glance over to Marc to see that he is grinning. I've gotta get ahead of this right now.

"M-Marc and I are not dating we are working together on a mission he's from out of town and he doesn't have a place to stay here in Vale so he's staying with me." I say trying to keep this conversation under control.

"Actually Viola if you'll recall our bet at the festival grounds we are on a date right now and I'm about to cook a mean steak dinner." Marc says proudly. Marc pulls the rug out from under me as smiles with excitement.

"A man who's handsome and can cook! You have a keeper." She proclaims. Do Marc and I really look that much like a couple? I think back to when Barry and Carmen first got together and look over to Marc with the groceries … We do look like a thought isn't unwelcome, wait, no, I've only just met him.

"It's good seeing you Mrs. Hardtree but we want to have dinner done before the vytal tournament starts up." I say and it seems to distract her enough.

"Right, I'm meeting up with some friends to watch it also." She says and she takes her leave to throw away the trash. I exhale feeling the pressure leave the area as I open the door for Marc and I. Kicking off my shoes as soon as I get inside I see Marc group the groceries on the kitchen countertop as he begins to start prepping for the meal. My scroll begin to chirp loudly from my purse. Please don't be Sergey. I reach for my scroll, relaxing when I see that it's Carmine who's calling me. Stepping out to the patio of my apartment I answer the phone.

"Viola do you have any plans for tonight? Barry is grilling and he was wondering If you and Marc would like to come over for dinner." She says.

"Thanks for the offer Carmine but Marc and I stopped and got stuff for dinner." I say and the line goes silent.

"Aww … you never have time to come over and visit, Jay really seems to like you." She says.

"We talk all the time." I say

"You know that's not the same." She says in motherly tone.

"I know, you're right, but tonight Marc has plans for his own meal, I'll make sure to come visit you and Jay, Just us. Marc and Barry can do something manly like fixing up your house." I say back as a giggle escapes my lips and is echoed by Carmine.

"So … about you and Marc I heard through the grapevine that you two are dating now!" Carmine says, causing me to seize up. How did she hear that?

"Wait who told you this and what makes you think we are dating?" I say trying to keep my frustration in check.

"Ohhh, I have my sources." She says in a mischievous tone. I can almost tell that she's trying keep herself from laughing.

"And since when have you been so concerned about my love life?" I accuse.

"What love life? The closest you ever got was all of the smutty ninjas of love books you read when we were in beacon together." Carmin says smugly as I cringe recalling that phase of my life.

"A handsome and mysterious man just appears in your life and now you two are sharing an apartment, that sounds like something from one of those books." Carmine says before I can get a word in.

"So did you just call me to remind me about my poor taste in literature when we were in school together?" I ask trying to keep my frustration with Carmine in check.

"Speaking of when we were in school together, is Marc a good roommate?" Camine asks inquisitively while simultaneously deflecting my question. I peer back into the apartment to see that Marc has begun cooking already.

"We have some ground rules set and he's pretty respectful of my privacy through he's already seen me in my underwear." I say back recalling the somewhat cramped living conditions with I shared with my team.

"Figures, it didn't for all of us too see each other naked if it was an accident or on purpose." Carmine says the line goes silent.

"Viola I was joking about you and Marc dating, but in all seriousness he's a very attractive man and you two are living together for the foreseeable future, are you going to make a move on him? Because if you don't someone else will." Carmine say bluntly.

"I-I don't know." I say unsure.

"Your totally into him aren't you!" Carmine blurts out.

"N-no I'm not." I say back in a panic.

"What was it? His beard, his eyes, or his rock hard..." She says giggling.

"No NOT that!" I cut Carmin off

"I was going to say his abs but obviously your mind is in the gutter thinking about his rock hard cock." Carmine says mockingly as the conversation flies off the tracks.

"Seriously Viola don't mess this up, he's a good man. I can tell, I'm married to one." Carmine says with a cheerful tone.

"Just get in there and help him with dinner and enjoy the night together. You two have fun and good night." Carmine says as she hangs up the line. I stand there staring at my scroll for a few moments trying to process what we talked about. Ok, help Marc with dinner, that's no problem at all but … enjoy the night with him? What did she mean by that? My mind begins to race as I start to think of all the possibilities only becoming more and more embarrassed.

"Hey Viola can you come help me with some of the sides? Dinner is almost ready." Marc says, catching me off guard. I almost jump turning to face him.

"S-Sure." I say trying to collect myself, seeing Marc lean in looking at me with some concern as he reaches out with his left hand moving it to my forehead.

"Are you getting sick? Your face is red." He says, I immediately take a step back from his hand.

"No! I'm fine, let's get this dinner wrapped up." I say as I move past him and am embraced by the smell of what he's been cooking. As I move into the kitchen I hear Marc following close behind me. I see that the steaks are almost done and I spot that the baked potatoes are out on a cutting board on the countertop and sitting next to them are some steamed vegetables in a pot.

"Can you get the potatoes and vegetables on a plate for the both of us? The steaks are almost ready." Marc says as I hear the stakes sizzling in the pan. I quickly grab silverware and plates for the both of us and I portion out the steamed vegetables between the two of us. As I finish up Marc places a steak on each of our plates, and takes his to the living room and takes a seat on the couch. I follow him into the living room and sit on the opposite end of the couch.

"I don't know how you like your steak so I just cooked it to a medium." He says as he begins to cut into his steak.

"That's fine, that's how I normally get it." I say as I do the same to mine taking a fork full of steak into my mouth biting down on it. It's cooked almost perfectly, I can taste the marbling melting in my mouth and there is enough seasoning to compliment the cut. This is a really good steak. As I go in for another bite Marc turns on the TV and finds the Vytal festival channel.

As the pre match entertainment is starting I glance over at Marc to see that he has almost inhaled his food. I look down at my plate to see that I've taken a good chunk out of my steak and begin to try the baked potato and vegetables which are light and refreshing in comparison to steak.

I put my fork and knife down on my plate, get up, and head back to the kitchen. Carmine's statement keeps echoing in my head. Enjoy the night.

"Marc, would you like anything to drink?" I ask opening a cabinet reaching for one of my more expensive bottles of wine and two wine glasses along with an opener.

"Sure I'll have what your getting." He says from the living room. Making my way back placing down both of the glasses and uncorking the bottle with a faint pop. I take bottle and pour both Marc and I some wine.

"Just to let you know I'm more of a bourbon man, haven't had enough wine to really form an opinion." He says taking his glass as I do my holding it up.

"A toast to a successful first mission and many more to come." I say with a smile and Marc shifts forward and gently taps his glass with mine.

"I'll drink to that." He says as he takes a sip of his wine and I do the same letting the fluids sit on my pallet. I can almost imagine the field the grapes were harvested from. Setting the glass down I go back to the food on my plate.

"This is an amazing meal, I guess I should trust a southern gentleman when it comes to cooking." I say before I getting back to work on my meal.

"A compliment from you? I will cherish it for the rest of my life." Marc says dryly. I bite my tongue at the comment.

"I'm not that bad at it myself." I say back to Marc as I begin to finish off my meal, going for another sip of wine.

"I can cook well enough If its wild game and over an open fire. I'm still trying to get the hang of it here, Carmine and Barry did most of the cooking when we were a team." I say thinking back to the hunting trips I went on with my parents and tribe members bringing a smile to my face.

"Well that's good to know, I did quite a bit of hunting myself growing up. If I bring you a dead wild animal would you cook up something amazing?" Marc says smiling.

"I think that's fair after you making this meal." I say back putting down my glass and offering my hand to Marc for a shake which he takes.

"Deal." I say glancing down at both of our plates we have finished up our dinner.

"The match should be starting soon, let's take care of the dishes." I say grabbing my plate along with Marc's as I head over to the kitchen. I place them into the sink only to see that Marc followed me with the bottle of wine and both of our glasses. He refills both of them before moving next to me at the sink and begins to start washing the cook wear he used as I start on the dishes. We get to work on the dishes bumping into each other occasionally.

"I really enjoyed this date Marc, especially the meal you cooked it was very good." I say as I move the plates and silverware into the dishwasher.

"Ohh, so are you finally admitting that this was actually a date?" He says proudly.

"This was just a one time thing don't get used to it." I say confidently

"Well If I only get to experience this once then I will cherish it till the day I die." Marc says with vigor.

I immediately grab up some more silver wear and put them into the dishwasher to hide my blushing face. I spend a bit of extra time adjusting the contents of the dishwasher before I right myself.

Seeing that Marc has finished up his chunk of the dishes along with mine I take a step back from the sink.

"Thanks again for the meal and helping with the dishes." I say.

"No problem, is the date still on till the end of the match? It will give me more time to change your mind about going on a second one." He says confidently.

This time I can't hide my face from him as he catches me blushing he doesn't say anything but I know he noticed by the way he walked back into the living room to take a seat on the couch. I can almost sense Carmine's spector hanging over me trying to egg me on. What do I do? I don't know what couples do outside from what I've seen with Carmine and Barry but they are married, that's different, Marc and I aren't even a couple. What are people that are together that aren't a couple supposed to do? My mind begins to race.

I think back to something my father told me, sometimes it's just better to act. Reaching for my glass making sure Marc is not looking I quickly down the contents of the glass and pour another. Carrying the bottle and glass to the living room and placing down the bottle on the Coffee table in front of us I sit down next right next to Marc.

After a few moments it dawns on me what I just did. I should've thought about it then acted. It's too late for me to move away now. I feel the couch cushions shift slightly as I Marcs wraps his arm over my left arm. I my heart beat slow down and my nervousness melts away as I lean into him slightly. I can feel the warmth of his chest through his shirt and the strength in his upper body. I take a sip from my glass of wine smiling to myself. This is nice.

"Marc," I say timidly as I turn to face him, "thanks for last night it helped a lot." Marc's arm squeezes me.

"We're partners you would do the same for me." He says calmly. I can smell hints of dinner on his breath only now do I realize how close we are to each other as our eyes meet.

The Volume Picks up on the TV and the announcer's voice echoes in the room.

Marc breaks eye contact shifting to the TV.

"The match is on." He says. I shift slightly to better see the TV, feeling some frustration building up in my stomach.

The fight begins with Yang and Mercury shortly. The two seem to be evenly matched at first but Yang seems to catch him off guard and she lands a pretty heavy combo that takes chunks out of his aura. The momentum changes after he barely escapes getting knocked out of the ring and runs back in taking the initiative from Yang and landing a massive string of attack on her which almost deplete her aura, but her semblance kicks in and Yang quickly ends the fight with a brutal combo. I lean back in my couch looking back up at the TV only to hear a gunshot as I watch Yang hit Mercury's leg as he lies on the ground moaning in agony. The live feed cuts almost immediately. I feel Marc's arm leave my shoulder as he leans forward.

"Shit." Marc says.

Special thanks to Coop seeker of memes for helping edit and being my Bro muse.


	7. Location

"Shit." I say leaning back in the couch as I feel a sense of dread fill the room. Withdrawing my arm from Viola's shoulder I get up and head to the kitchen where I grab a glass and fill it with water. I take a sip feeling cool liquid hit my pallet . I look over to Viola to see frustration on her face. I see her lips moving but I can barely make out what she's saying.

"I'm sorry Viola I didn't catch that." I say as I grab another glass of water for her and take a seat next to her on the couch placing the glass on the table in front of us.

"People have been injured before in the Vytal festival during a match, But I've never seen a fighter hit their opponent when they were down." Viola says soberly. Looking over to her I can see that she's recounting the events in her head.

"Maybe Yang saw something we didn't, but for right know It looks like she attacked mercury in cold blood." I say hoping that I'm wrong. Viola takes a drink from her glass and looks over to me as her face takes on a serious look.

"A city's worth of people just saw what we saw and are probably pretty upset about it, we should expect heightened grimm activity and to be on call to defend the outskirts of the city." Viola says, stretching out her arms and letting out a yawn.

"I figured that's the case, we should probably get to bed, Sergey probably has a long day planned for us tomorrow." I say. I hope nothing crazy happens but my gut is telling me different.

"I'm surprised he hasn't called us already." She says sarcastically, I echo the sentiment.

"Viola, you hit the showers first." I say. She nods, gets up, and begins to make her way to her room. A thought crosses my mind.

"Viola, do you have a pen and paper?" I ask, Viola stops in her tracks turning to face me and nods, then disappears into her room, comes out with a notebook, and places it on the table with a blue pen.

"Thank you." I say as she heads off into the bathroom and I hear the distant hiss of the shower being turned on. I look down at the notebook, grab it and the pen, place it in my lap, and open it up to see that it's blank.

I stare at the blake page for a few moments trying to collect my thoughts. The pen hits the paper and begins to slowly dance across the notebook.

 _Dear Mom & Dad_

 _I hope everything is ok, I'm sorry I'm gone and I don't know when or if I'll be able to get back or ever reach you two, but I want to let you know that I'm doing fine right now. I'm currently living with a woman named Viola LionMantel. I know mom probably won't be too happy to hear that but I'm kinda stuck in this situation for the time being. You would probably like her if you got to know her though, she's kinda dense but she cares for the people around her and she is very attractive. You wouldn't believe the things that I could tell you about this place, but I'll save that for another letter. You two take care of each other while I'm gone I'll try to find a way back to you._

I finish the letter with my signature and close the notebook. Getting up I place it in my neat pile of my items and I withdraw my pack of cigarettes. I head out to the porch, putting one between my lips and lighting it. I take a long drag and feel the hot smoke fill my lungs and the nicotine fill my bloodstream as I exhale a small cloud of smoke. I take a seat on the metal chair on the porch and stare up at the night sky admiring what stars I can see. I run a rough inventory of my equipment through my head.

I take another pull, let's try this summoning again. I close my eyes while thinking of ammo, magazines, and grenades. I hear the pop again and get the same dizzy feeling as before. I slowly open my eyes, seeing a metal ammo can with a metal box next to it I open it up to find 5.56 inside of it and then pop open the next box to find twenty M67 grenades. I reach into the box pull one out, then start tossing it back and forth between my hands.

"Nice." I say out loud to myself before I return it to the box. I finish off my smoke to hear a tapping on the glass door behind me. I look over to see that Viola is wearing a plain oversized T-shirt that barely goes down past her upper thighs. I smile back at her as she opens the door.

"Your turn for the shower." She says. I get up from my chair looking down at the boxes I summoned.

"Can you help me carry this in?" I say reaching down and grabbing the grenade box before handing it to her and reaching back down to grab the ammo can. She turns and heads into the apartment and I follow her in only to have my eyes immediately drawn to her butt, now exposed from carrying the box of grenades. I see she is wearing light pink lace boyshorts style panties which I immediately commit to memory.

"What's in the box?" Viola asks as she bends down to place it next to my pile of stuff. Her bending over only reveals more to me and I do my best to burn it into my memory.

"Explosives." I say casually, causing Viola to jump away from the box as I place the ammo can next to it.

"Relax, they're not armed." I say offhandedly. She looks back it with me some distrust. I smile back at her and head back to the bathroom to take a quick shower and change into more comfortable clothing.

After washing up, I make my way back into the living room to see that Viola is sitting on the couch waiting for me with a light blanket covering her lower half.

"Well since the tournament is over for the night let's find something else to watch." She says as I take a seat on the couch giving her some space. I watch as she grabs the remote and begins flipping through the channels. She ends up on a channel that is playing some movie but it looks like it's almost over.

"H..hey there's plenty of blanket for the two of us." Viola says as she lifts up the blanket. I take the invitation and slide myself over to her, getting under the blanket and wrapping my arm around her shoulder as my left hand finds hers and our fingers intertwine. She leans into me and I feel the warmth of her body pressing on my chest along with the warmth we share under the blanket. The movie seems to be a romance, I normally try to avoid those. I feel Viola's head resting on my shoulder as the movie reaches its climax.

I watch what I assume is the hero rescuing a scantily clad woman dressed like a ninja who was only until just recently tied up like one of those chicks in those BDSM pornos one of my squadmates was fond of. There is a brief fight between the hero and the villain which the hero wins. He then gets the girl, they embrace, and it cuts to the ending credits. I look down at Viola to see that she's completely enamored by the performance and has probably forgotten that I'm there.

"No offence, but what was that?" I ask, not knowing If I actually want to know as I get a 50 shades of grey vibe from the movie.

Viola suddenly shifts in the couch letting go of my hand as she turns her body to face me, our faces only inches apart. Her eyes are ablaze with excitement and I feel her right hand pressing on my chest for support.

"The movie is called 'Ninjas of Love 3 : Fallen Kunoichi, you only caught the end of it but it's a reasonable adaptation of the book, they took some of the more graphic content from the book out of the movie but it's still a pretty faithful adaptation." Viola begins to rattle off as she keeps leaning into me. I slowly lean back while her proximity to me causes a reaction that I hope she doesn't notice.

I lose track of the conversation as she summarizes the plot of the book to me which only seems to be written to move the story from one sex scene to another, many of which are dubiously consensual at best. She goes over how the female lead was "captured and tortured" by the villain, but that her heart wasn't corrupted by the villian and she still remained true to the main character. I keep leaning back and Viola leans into me even further.

"They made more movies after this but they were nowhere near as good as the third one, which was the best in my opinion. The next book is about to be released at the end of the month." She says being cut off as the arm supporting me slips out from under me and we both collapse.

I quickly move my right arm around Violas waist to make sure she doesn't fall off the couch while I feel her weight and bust pressing into my chest and see her head has ended up next to mine. Thankfully we didn't headbutt each other in the slip.

I hear Violas breath in my ear and her heart pounding in her chest for what reason I don't know. I know my own heart is racing as a more primal part of my body reacts of its own accord.

I turn my head towards her slightly.

"Sorry about that, my hand slipped on the blanket." I say softly to Viola. Her body shifts slightly and I feel more pressure being placed on my chest by her right hand. As she pushes herself up some of her hair brushes across my face. My right arm is still around her waist and her shirt has gotten hiked up quite a bit from the slip so that I can feel her soft skin with my hand. The closeness catches us both off guard as our eyes lock onto each other. We stare at each other for who knows how long, both of us staying perfectly still. The only movement is the steady rise and fall of our chests as we breathe almost in sync with each other. My left hand slowly rises up from the couch to Viola's head. She notices it for a split second but her attention is still focused on me. My hand reaches Violas head and she tilts it slightly as I push my fingers through her soft brown hair, something in her eyes changes as I slowly pull her towards me.

There is a loud chirping from Violas scroll on the coffee table. The look in her eyes vanishes almost instantly as we both look at the phone. She roughly climbs off of me straightening out her shirt and answers the phone.

If that's Sergey calling us I'm going to kill him the next time I see him. I can't make out what the person on the other end of the line is saying but I know it's Sergey. I grumble silently as I right myself and cover my lap with the blanket, hoping that it calms down quickly.

"Understood, Marc and I will be at the staging area for the tournament tomorrow morning." Viola says into her scroll.

"Before you hang up tell Sergey to have breakfast for us, I want breakfast tacos with spicy green sauce." I say trying to keep my frustration in check as Viola echoes my statement to Sergey then she hangs up the scroll. She takes a seat at the other end of the couch and turns her head to face me but she is having a hard time keeping eye contact with me.

"What does Sergey have in mind for us tomorrow?" I ask trying to cut the tension in the air.

"He wants us to bolster the guards at the ferry for Amity colosseum,he also mentioned that he had something he would like to speak to us about in person."Viola says with some dread.

"I see. Do huntsmen normally pull guard duty?" I ask reaching for my water and taking a long sip from it before returning it. She shrugs and rolls her head.

"Sometimes yes but mainly grimm suppression, fending off bandits, and pulling security for people who can afford it." She says exhaling loudly as she pushes herself into the couch getting more comfortable.

"So what do you think of this mission hunting down Adam of the white fang, the maidens, and the people working for Salem?" I ask, Viola shifts in place for a bit.

"It's definitely not something in my wheelhouse, you seem to be more used to this sort of off the books style of operation." She says quietly.

"The unit I was in did plenty of VIP hits but this was normally done after plenty of digging and confirmation from the intelligence agencies in the United States government. This mission, depending on the objective, seems to require ground work more suited for a spy than an attack dog." I say begrudgingly. Violas mood seems to sour at my response.

"So we should rely on Sergey then, is what you are saying?" She says back with a tinge of resentment.

"Welcome to black ops, where some spy or pencil pusher gets some intel and lets loose the dogs of war to make the problem go away. Although I'll admit Sergey does seem pretty competent from what I've seen of him so far." I say with a sprinkle of sarcasm.

Viola reaches out, takes another sip of her water, and looks back over to me.

"With this mission we are operating in the greyest of grey areas. We have to have each other backs during this. One mistake or slight could lead to us both being in the shit with no backup, probably dead at the worst or rotting in a cell in the middle of nowhere at best." I say with as much seriousness as I can muster. The statement seems to rock Viola for a few moments.

"Are missions like this where you are from really that dangerous?" She says casually.

"Yes but planning an intel help most missions that the unit I was in had very specific objectives, when the objectives are vague things can get messy quickly and our command can hang us out to dry with plausible deniability. We are going to be writing the rule book as the mission is happening. It's not going to be pretty and we are not going to be the heroes." I say coldly, Viola finishes her water she get us and head over to the kitchen placing her glass in the sink.

"I'm going to call it a night, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." She says as she makes her way into her bedroom.

"Agreed." I say as I begin to prepare the couch for bed. I climb onto the couch and pull the blankets over me before letting sleep take me.

I feel a pressure on my right shoulder and open my eyes to see that Viola is standing over me trying to politely wake me up.

"Marc, wake up, we gotta get ready for work." I hear Viola say softly.

"I'm awake." I mutter the words as I roll off the couch getting my feet underneath me. I glance at the clock to see that it's four in the morning and still dark outside.

"I'll get my gear ready while you shower." I tell her as she nods her head then heads back into her room.

I glance over to my neat pile still feeling groggy. Time for coffee. I walk into the kitchen and get the coffee machine going then head over to my gear and check my rifle and pistol. Grabbing my vest and inspecting it, I roll it in my hands then pull out the magazines, topping them off with ammo and placing them back into their pouches. Seeing that I have a few extra mags floating around I load them up and place them into a small assault pack with some neat bundles of loose ammo just in case. I look over to my helmet, reach out and grab it. I place it on my head, flipping the goggles down and doing a quick function check. Everything looks good so far but I'm missing something. My eyes wander to the microphone on my helmet. Comms. I shake my head in frustration. Closing my eyes I hear a faint pop as I see that I've summoned two compact but powerful radios. Turning them both on they hiss slightly with static then go silent as I begin to quickly program them. I chime both of the raidos to confirm they are working properly before hooking one up to my helmet and placing the radio in a pouch on my plate carrier. There, we're done. I hear faint beep from the kitchen that causes me to jump.

The smell of coffee floods my senses as I make my way into the kitchen. I grab the pot and pour myself a cup, adding some sugar. I quickly mix it together and bring the mug to my lips, greedily drinking the hot liquid. That's the stuff. As the coffee chases away my drowsiness I walk back to where my gear is all spread out giving it a final once over and feeling satisfied.

I hear the door to Viola's room open up and see her head out into the living room wearing not only her usual armor, but what looks like a form fitting brown leather vest with metal strips stitched between the leather.

"The shower is yours." Viola says in a low tone. I guess she and I both are still trying to wake up. I nod back to her.

"Before I go there's coffee in the kitchen … you think something's going to happen?" I ask, pointing to the extra armor Viola is wearing to cover her normally exposed midriff. She walks into the kitchen and fixes herself some coffee.

"I hope I'm wrong but something doesn't feel right." She says from the kitchen as she takes a sip from her mug.

"I hope your right and today is painfully boring." I say. Viola nods in agreement. I take my leave, quickly shower, and head back into the living room as I go over to my gear and quickly put it on some flat dark earth colored combat pants and matching long sleeve combat shirt. Grabbing my vest and battle belt I make some minor adjustments before charging my pistol and holstering it. I grab my pack and put it on then finally my helmet and rifle.

"I'm ready ." I say and with that Viola heads out of the apartment and I follow behind her.

We are met in the parking lot by a woman with long red hair and wearing clothes fit for a punk concert, short torn blue jeans with stockings covering her legs and a black cut up band shirt. She's standing next to a parked car with the engine going. Something about her seems familiar though as she calls out to us.

"Viola, Marc, over here, Sergey want to talk to the two of you." The redheaded woman says. Shit, I recognize her now, that's Sergey's driver.

Viola and I make our way over to the car as the woman opens the door and wakes up Sergey. As she leans into the car she exposes a tattoo on her lower back along with an orange cat tail. I hear her speak but can't make out what she's saying as she wakes Sergey up and the two of them share what looks like a quick kiss. So she and Sergey are a thing. Good to know.

Viola and I both get into the car and the woman takes her spot in the driver's seat. Sergey shifts around in his seat looking back at us.

"Fuck mornings." He says as the car is shifted into gear and starts moving.

"Agreed." I reply and he nods his head in approval. The car goes silent as Sergey seems to have lost his train of thought.

"Sergey do you mind introducing us to your driver?" Viola asks. The remark seems to wake him up and he becomes excited.

"Where are my manners? Copper, did I not introduce you to Marc and Viola?" He asks her.

"No sir you didn't." She says in a monotone voice.

"Marc, Viola, this is Copper, my personal assistant." He says gesturing to her.

Must be a very personal assistant.

"Nice to meet you." I say and Viola echoes. Copper smiles back at us while focusing on the road ahead of us.

"Ok so down to business." Sergey says and he turns to face us.

"I don't know what but something is going down tonight. Brass doesn't believe me but with what happened last night and afterwards things do not add up." He reaches down to the floorboards, grabbing a small stack of documents and notes before clearing his throat.

"First off, Mercury Black, along with the ambulance crew and the ambulance he was taken away in, are missing. The ambulance was found abandoned in the warehouse district burned to a husk VERY early this morning; no bodies, no blood, nothing." He says as he flips to another page in his notebook.

"Second, I believe that Yang was tricked into attacking Mercury." He adds.

"What makes you say that? Most of the world was watching that fight, how could she of been tricked without any of the cameras picking up the foul play?" Viola asks with a hint of concern. Sergey stays silent for a few moments.

"I'm glad you asked Viola!" He exclaims with false, condescending cheer, "I did some digging about reported uses of semblance that could cause Yang to act the way she did. In Mystral there have been reports of a thief that is able to affect a person's perspective, or at least that's what the authorities have concluded. They've never actually been able to come up with a proper lead on the thief. If that semblance user was working with the people responsible for the burnt down ambulance… then I'd gamble that Yang was effected by this semblance and was tricked into attacking Mercury." He finishes.

"Ok… Not doubting you, but what proof do you have of Yang being tricked?" I ask in a serious tone.

"Yang was interviewed by general Ironwood and she swears that Mercury attacked her and that she was defending herself." He says with confidence. I begin running the scenario through my head.

"She could be lying to save face, but if what you are saying is true then she took the fall for whatever is going down, and even if she is telling the truth no one will believe her." Viola says with some sympathy.

"Now this the the most concerning part, I did a check over all of the Atlas shipments that were raised in Vale. Most of what was stolen was arms, both large and small, along with explosives, but the troubling thing is that a lot of bullhead assault ships were stolen." Sergey adds.

"What's a bullhead?" I ask.

"A bullhead is a heavily armored flying assault craft designed for transporting troops into hot landing zones. Their weaponry is light but they are fast and nimble and most of them are equipped with very effective jamming systems for both radar and anti air defense systems." He says regretfully.

"So what you're saying is the white fang have a fleet of assault craft that can only be detected when you have a visual on them and which they can use to deploy a small army of ground forces. Why hasn't the tournament been canceled?" I say leaning back into the car seat at the potential shit show that could happen at any time.

"Yes you are correct. Ironwood wanted to cancel the tournament but Ozpin said the tournament must go on. I hope I'm wrong and nothing will happen and it's just my paranoia flaring up but I've made some arrangements. Firstly by having you here, and secondly by hiring a lot of huntsmen from the local guild." Sergey says with his face buried in his notes.

"Well, I'd prefer today to be the most boring guard shift of my life, but if the attack does happen what exactly is going to go down, Mr. Spymaster?" I ask glancing over to Viola to see that she is focused on the conversation.

Sergey yawns loudly then flips to another page in his notebook.

"Just to let you know Ironwood has informed me about the maidens and your mission. Keeping previous enemy activity in mind, I would assume that the people who attacked the fall maiden are looking to finish the job. The problem is I have no idea where the fall maiden is and I'm assuming neither of you know where she is being kept either." He says looking at both of us. Viola and I both shake our heads no.

"So if I were Fall's attackers and I was working with the White Fang I would send the White Fang to attack the stadium as a distraction and use that chance to find and finish my work with the fall maiden. But we don't know where the maiden is and we have to gamble stopping the raid on the stadium to keep the other party from acting and taking the initiative." He finishes and hands back a folder. Viola takes the folder and opens it up.

"In that folder are images of Mercury's teammates, those are our prime suspects, if you see them try to detain them but lethal force is authorized if they resist." He says as I take the folder from Viola seeing an image of two females in Mystral school uniforms.

One is a girl maybe eighteen years old with a brown complexion and mint green hair. The other is older but not by much, early twenties at most, white, with long black hair and almost glowing golden eyes which seem to project an air of superiority from them. I close the folder. Great. The people of interest are barely even adults. Exhaling silently as the car begins to slow down, I see the floating coliseum and stare at it in awe as I see small craft landing and taking off from it.

"REALLY? LETHAL FORCE? They are still students! Not to long ago I was there age! They might not understand what they are doing!" Viola says with frustration.

Violas words cause the whole car to get silent with only the humming of the engine filling the air. I can't have her shaken by this and second guessing herself if something goes down. I need to choose my words carefully in order to disarm the situation.

"I know it's not pretty but when the chips are down I know that you will make the right choice." I say to Viola looking her dead in the eye in what I hope is a reassuring way. She clenches both of her fists and her face strains for a second.

"I can't promise that Marc." She says bluntly.

I shift in the car seat to look outside as we near the staging area for the colosseum. Well she didn't say no. My eyes wander to the window to see Sergey smiling at me through the side mirror of the car. Guess he saw through my attempt at diplomacy figures. After a few more turns and a stop we are waved into a small parking lot and Copper parks the car.

"You two head into the tent and the captain will tell you where to go." She says politely as she points to a white tent a short walk away. Viola gets out of the car in silence as I look over at Sergey to see that he's passed out in his seat. Taking my left foot I kick the back of his seat, waking him up, then get out of the car as I hear his window rolling down. He glares at me for disturbing his sleep.

"Don't forget the breakfast taco next time." I say before I turn around and catch up to Viola's normal deliberate purposeful gait that I'm used to has been replaced with a more sporadic pace. I grit my teeth seeing that this is affecting her. I watch her bring her left hand up to her face as I assume she is chewing on her nail.

Shit not good. I quicken my pace catching up with her reaching out with my right hand grabbing her right wrist stopping her and pulling her to face me as I hold out my pack of cigarettes.

"You can bum one if you need one." I say seeing a confused look on her face that shifts to revulsion.

"Umm … Thank you Marc but I don't smoke. If I did I'd let you smoke in the apartment." She says as I let go of her wrist and she walks to the tent in her usual measured gait.

That seemed to work, as I follow her into the tent to see several Atlas troops wearing white armor that makes them look like they walked off the set of starship troopers. I catch Viola talking to what looks like an officer as I notice a few extra pins on his chest plate. My focus is drawn away from Viola and the CO as I spot an open box of what looks like doughnuts and kolaczkis. My body moves for me and I dash over to the table, grab up a item and begin to stuff my face due to having only having coffee for breakfast. I feel a hand on my shoulder as I look to see Viola with a kolaczki hanging out of my mouth. I quickly swallow it.

Viola giggles at me as I try to wipe the leftovers of the kolaczki from my face.

"What so funny? I haven't had my morning cigarette and I've only had coffee, I'm hungry." I say before pushing another kolaczki into my mouth. She moves next to me and takes her pick from the box, taking a more modest approach to her breakfast than I did.

"So what did the officer say?" I ask in between bites of food.

"He said that he doesn't have time to train us on how to use the security equipment at the checkpoint and he just wants us to stand around, look intimidating, make sure the line keeps moving, and report anything suspicious." She says after finishing her breakfast.

"Sounds like an easy day then." I say as I make my way out of the tent feeling the dagger stares in my back from having eaten most of the food in the box. I grin to myself as I push a cigarette into my lips and light it. As I leave I take a pull from it and look to see that Viola is at my side.

"Also The local guild probably Barry's has been hired on for extra help and they are posted not too far from here." Viola says as she leads the way. I follow next to her pulling on my smoke as we walk to checkpoint that the guild is manning. I spot Barry in the distance and he sees the both of us and waves at us. Viola and I end up doing the same. Taking my smoke and flicking it into a trash can and pulling another I start walking away from Viola.

"Marc, you don't have to move away from me when you smoke, just stand down wind." She says, nodding back to her I move myself appropriately as I begin to scan the area around us. We are in the middle of a residential area right next to the school and a large tower.

There are a lot of people moving through the checkpoint to get onto the transport ships taking the short flight to the arena to watch the matches. Even from here on the ground I can faintly hear the cheers that indicate the beginning of the matches. My eyes shift back to the rooftops and windows considering each one a potential threat and playing out in my mind how I would attack this position with the information at hand. Every scenario I can think of only ends in a blood bath for both sides. Taking another long pull, I grit my teeth, hoping that Sergey is wrong.

The hours grind on as Viola and I talk about random things trying to pass the time and to keep our nerves in check. Night comes and he final match between Pyrrha and Penny starts.

The crowd erupts in excitement as the match begins. I catch glimpses of it from the big screen in the bar across the street with the cheering of the crowd echoing faintly from the arena floating above us.

"I'm gonna head to the convenience store and get some more smokes." I say to Viola as I make my way across the street entering the store. As I walk into the shop I see the TV playing the live broadcast of the match. I buy a pack of cigarettes, thanking the attendant, and as I make my way to the door I begin hearing cries of panic from the audience on the TV. I look over to the TV to see that Penny has been cut to pieces but instead of blood and gore I see circuitry and hydraulic cables. I glance over to the attendant to see that he is standing still in absolute shock. No time to question why there is a dead robot girl on the TV. I ready my rifle flicking the selector switch to full-auto and sprint back to Viola. I press the activation button on my radio.

"VIOLA! Location!" I Shout into my headset, there's a slight pause then I hear the other end of the radio open up.

"I'm still at the same spot when you went to get cigarettes, assuming you can hear me." She says with some confusion. I spot her where she was at and dash across the short distance, stopping next to her.

"We need to find Sergey NOW." I say to her and she nods in agreement. We begin to run back to the command tent. My headset begins to pick up faint high pitched whining in the distance which slowly builds up into a low deep roar that reminds me of a jet engine. Not just one jet engine though, a fleets worth.

I stop and look up into the sky to see a swarm of airborne assault craft carrying what look like shipping containers attached to their bellies speeding towards us. Viola picks up on this and she stops, looking up at the wave of assault craft.

"Well Viola, looks like it's time to punch the clock." I say with frustration.


	8. Silent night

"So much for a boring night." I say to Viola while we run through the panicked crowd, most of them just standing there.

"EVERYONE GO HOME!" I yell at the crowd.

The crowd starts to get the picture and they slowly disperse. Through a break In the crowd I see Barry and his guild trying to maintain control roughly two football fields in front of me.

The roaring of the Bullheads grows louder. I look up to the sky seeing that most of the Bullhead assault craft are carrying a payload that looks like a metal shipping containers that are being dropped indiscriminately over the city. I don't ponder the contents but I'm glad that I didn't hear any explosions from that dropped payload.

"Viola, what do you think are in those containers?!" I shout at her and she slows.

"They may be filled with captured grimm." She growls back.

My attention is pulled back to the ground as I hear screaming and yelling in the distance along with the sound of gunfire rising above the crowd, the muzzle flashes lighting up the night sky.

Viola and I dodge through the wave of people trying to run away from the gunfire. Viola is like smoke weaving through the crowd with minimal effort, I'm not doing so well as I fall behind shoving and elbowing my way through the human tide.

The gunfire picks up and the crowd thins out. I see several huntsman shooting back from cover at the checkpoint as roughly twenty White Fang members are returning fire from the shop fronts across the street. The guild seems to be holding their own but I spot three White Fang members dragging some equipment behind them that looks like a heavy machine gun. I spot Viola taking cover behind a large tree and I kneel down next to her seeing her holding what looks like a small submachine gun in her hands.

"Where did you get that?" I ask glancing at her SMG.

"My weapons transform into this, yours don't?" She says casually glancing at my rifle.

I look over her scanning the battlefield and seeing that there are several dead or critical civilians in no man's land. The weight of fire on Barry's position begins to double keeping most of the huntsman hugging their cover for dear life. I can see Barry rallying the guild members.

His position is going to be overrun, it's only a matter of time. Surveying the scene I spot an alleyway adjacent to us. I tap Viola's shoulder and point to the alley.

"Think that will lead us to the flank of the White Fang attacking Barry?" I ask. Viola nods back yes.

"OK, move through and hit them hard and fast." I say as I break from cover, sprinting across the distance while keeping my rifle trained at the alleyway. The muzzle darts around like the nose of a bloodhound tracking its quarry. I hear Violas light footsteps behind me as we round the corner and we both take cover by a dumpster.

I peek out from behind the dumpster, seeing that we are behind the heavy machine gun crew as they open up on the checkpoint. The sound echoes through the alleyway. I turn around and take a knee facing Viola.

"Cover your ears, when the explosions stop run out and I'll cover you." I whisper back to her. She puts down her SMG and covers her ears with her hands.

I grab two grenades off my vest, placing one on top of the dumpster. I step out to get a better angle, exposing myself slightly. I spot the heavy machine gun and crew along with a group of White Fang one of whom has a more exotic mask than the others, I'm guessing he's calling the shots. I hook my right pointer finger through the pin of the grenade.

Yanking on it, I toss it overhand. I don't even wait for it to land as I snatch the other grenade and toss it at the officer and his cohorts before immediately side stepping back behind the dumpster and bringing up my rifle to my shoulder. The sound of gunfire is drowned out by the two loud thuds.

Viola pounces out in front of me with impressive speed staying low as she lets out a burst from her SMG before breaking the weapon into its more familiar form. The heads of her twin axes crackle with lightning as they seek the nearest white fang member.

The grenades did what I needed them to do. I bring my rifle to bear on a stunned insurgent letting loose a short burst into his chest. He crumples as I keep scanning for targets and engage them accordingly.

The gunfire almost ceases around Viola.

Too worried about catching each other in the crossfire some of them break and others get picked off by huntsman at the checkpoint seeing that the battle has turned in their favor. Some of the braver (or dumber) ones try to switch to melee weapons.

Viola doesn't give them the chance.

I spot a man in his tattered uniform desperately clutching his shattered leg oozing blood, next to him is a man clutching his chest, screaming loudly in agony his torso perforated by shrapnel. I break from cover taking slow methodical shots at any target that presents itself. The White Fang numbers advantage evaporates within seconds as the guild huntsman charge into the fray routing them.

I find Viola standing over two dead White Fang members and another who is critically injured having surrendered his right arm hanging limp from his shoulder. A few others have surrendered either being too wounded to run or got themselves cornered and gave up. The battle, if you could call it one, ended as quickly as it started. Thankfully we were able to hold our own but the air is filled with gunfire and explosions in the distance and smoke rises in thick columns around the city.

The guild huntsman are a mixed bag of men and women of varying build and exotic weapons, some in their early twenties and mid forties. I look closer as I take a count of the guild members.

Counting the fighters I linger on a few individuals, first a giant of a man towering over the other guild members by several inches. He's dressed like a mountain man covered in furs with a stern look about him but his attention drifts to the other guild members watching over them like a protective big brother. He shares some of the russian and eastern european features that Sergey has. A woman approaches him and they begin to talk. She shares the build and facial features of a middle eastern woman, as they converse she looks him over him checking for injuries. I'm guessing she's a medic. Her outfit is rather plain, matching pants with a button up shirt and a leather vest covering it. The whole guild is surprisingly diverse with physical traits and features matching up with what I'm used too from my world, a simple but appreciated comfort.

Lowering my rifle I walk over to Viola. She's stepped away from the White Fang member as he is restrained by two guild members, but at a glance I can still tell she's still wound up.

Her hands are almost white from trying to squeeze the life out of her twin axes as I catch her looking over no mans land and at the dead civilians, it's probably not an easy sight for her.

"Viola it's over but we've got more work to do." I say softly to her. She flinches, then her body deflates as she turns to face me.

She nods back at me.

"Pace yourself." I say as I spot a familiar redhead over her shoulder walking a familiar pace I've seen before from a commanding officer. I know what's coming as I glance around at the mulling guild members.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL DOING STANDING OUT IN THE OPEN!" Barry shouts. The reaction is instant from the guild members as they snap back to attention.

"Grab the wounded and restrain the surrendered White Fang members. Bring them back to the checkpoint and we will hand them over to Atlis, this is their problem." He says in a firm tone as the guild members get to work. I take cover by a low wall watching down the street for reinforcements, Viola moves into a similar spot across from me.

I hear someone approaching me from behind and I quickly glance over my shoulder to see Barry walking over in silence. He's carrying a small shield on his right forearm and what looks like an exotic blackjack, his chest is covered in a segmented matte metal plate and he's wearing a kilt. Barry takes a spot next to me behind the wall. He exhales loudly, probably from the responsibility he has over his men.

"You better be wearing underwear under that skirt, last thing I want to see is your gentleman sausage." I say bluntly. I see Barry shift slightly then he elbows me in the side.

"That camo you are wearing looks ridiculous. Does it even work? Also what is that on your helmet?" He asks glancing back at his guild-mates.

"Ya multicam does work, just in a very specific environment, but its not the worst, also Night Vision goggles." I say taking my right hand off my rifle and tapping them with my pointer finger.

"Good to know, those can definitely be a game changer." He says, clearly curious.

"They are, so, are you wearing a skirt right now because Carmine doesn't let you wear one around her?" I ask while continuing to scan for contacts.

"First it's a kilt and its what huntsmen wear in combat where I'm from, second she lets me wear it around her when she wants another baby." He boasts his chest swells with pride, I catch out of the corner of my eye.

"Didn't need to know that." I groan back.

"BOSS WERE FALLING BACK!" A male voice shouts from behind us.

"Time to head back." Barry says

I spot Viola already bounding back staying behind the guild members covering them as they fallback. Standing up Barry and I move to a piece of cover that Viola had just vacated.

"Marc thanks for pulling us out of the fire there, that heavy weapons team would of put us in a bind." He says with a grim tone.

"Anytime, you'd do the same for Viola and I." I say back as we jog the final gap back to the checkpoint. Vaulting over a concrete barrier I take cover behind it and take a count of my ammo stocks confirming that I'm still mostly full. I swap out for a fresh mag with a metallic click as it seats home, dropping the half spent one in my dump pouch.

I glance up into the sky seeing that some of the bullheads are finally being shot down. I'm thankful for the AA fire but it's probably too little too late, plenty are still getting through and I don't want to think about how many had already landed and dropped off troops.

Barry kneels down next to me he looks up into the sky watching the ships fly in.

"How many do you think there are?" Barry asks concerned. He looks over to his guildmates they all seem to share a look of panic.

"Well If I was in charge of invading the city I'd say roughly two thousand coming in airborne and I'd have as many cells in the city as I could get while also trying to make a bridge head into the city the old fashioned way with whatever armor I could muster." I say grimly.

I really hope they don't have tanks. I could try summoning something for them but I don't want to risk passing out from exertion. Viola moves next to us her eyes find mine I nod back at her and she goes back to covering the front of the checkpoint.

"BOSS DO WE JUST HOLD THIS CHECKPOINT?" A man asks from the Guild.

Barry stiffens for a second, standing up looking back over to them.

"Dig in. We hold here for now." he says

A sinking weight fills my gut … sleeper cells FUCK.

"GET OFF OF THE CHECKPOINT NOW!" I shout as the words leave my mouth a faint thump echoes in the distance. I reach out with both of my arms grabbing Viola and Barry throwing them over the barrier.

"TAKE COVER IN THE SHOPS THEY HAVE US ZEROED." I yell as I throw myself over looking back to see that they got the message I just hope it's not too late.

My world is engulfed in flames as the mortars hit the checkpoint. The shock wave slams into my body as I dive into the shop that Barry and Viola are taking cover in. I roughly land behind a table kicking it over to provide some semblance of cover seeing several guild members doing the same some of the yell and shouting at each other I can't make it out.

The barrage continues for what feels like an eternity then it stops.

The silence is deafening.

"Head count!" Barry shouts horsley

His men begin sounding off, I look back at the checkpoint to see that it's a bombed out wreck. I spot three guild members still in the road dead, two males and a female their bodies pulped by the shrapnel. I look over to see another guild member hyperventilating, blood covering his chest looking like his whole upper body was hit, his armor was punched through in several places blood oozes out of them. There panic in his eyes as he's pleading for help from the medic in the group doing her best trying to keep the bleeding in check.

IF he survives his life will never be the same. I glance next to him seeing another man missing an arm just above his his elbow unconscious with a tourniquet on what's left of it. He's stable but needs to see a doctor just as bad.

"Give them the nature dust NOW." Barry says in a soft but demanding tone as he gets up waving to several other guild members to do the same.

The brunette female medic begins fishing in her pack and pulls out two glowing green vials, injecting them both into the wounded guild members. The one with the destroyed torso begins to calm down, groaning softly in pain but he seems to be stabilised for the time being. The one missing his arm stops bleeding seeming to stabilize as well for now.

"Take positions defend the shop and expect a counter attack." Barry says as he moves out. He grabs a table and drags it out to make some cover and the other guild members do the same.

I spot Viola kneeling by a knocked over chair, her eyes are locked on the dead guild members. I get up and kneel down in front of her which seems to bring her out of whatever is going on inside of her head, she starts to get up.

I reach out grabbing her right arm and pulling her back down.

"Marc we need to help them." She says weakly, probably looking for an out. Her eyes dart from mine to the bodies behind me. I shuffle next to Viola facing the road looking at the deceased guild members.

"I don't know them but I feel bad for them that they are gone, but I feel worse for those two over there and I don't even know their names, their lives will never be the same if they survive the night." I say turning my head to face her seeing her usual focused expression gone replaced by an unsure one. I rest gently rest my hand on her sounders and lock eyes with hers.

"We have to win tonight. Not just for our own survival, we gotta do it for everyone else in the city. We can't do it alone, we will need help and we have to work together. We can't fail the stakes are too high." I say firmly to her and her normal composure returns she smiles back for a few seconds.

"I understand Marc." She says. I take my hands off of her shoulders and stand up. She does the same and jogs off to the barricade as I follow behind her. I spot Barry positioning everyone at the makeshift barricade as he sends a few guild members to cover the flanks.

"Barry where do you want me?" I ask respecting his command of the unit Viola and I are grouped up with.

"What's the effective range of your Rifle?" He asks.

"Four hundred yards, but anything that shows up down the street is well within range." I say as I kneel down next to a thick concrete barrier that gives me a good line of sight down the road.

"That's a good spot there Marc … also what's a yard?" He asks.

Well they aren't on the standard system I hope they aren't on the communist metric system.

"A yard is about one pace." I say back. He shrugs in return.

"Good the range on your rifle will help." He says grateful.

"Viola take the close quarters huntsman and hide in the shops, if they try to overrun us we can catch them in a pincer attack. It will only work once though so fall back to the lines after you are done." He commands several huntsman follow Viola into one of the shops a few blocks down.

I push the activation stud on my radio.

"I'll give you the signal." I say into my coms

"Understood." She says back from her.

The area around us becomes quiet outside of the distant sounds of battle and mortar fire and the shifting of the guild members. The minutes crawl by, I look up to the sky seeing that the floating ships have finally gotten their act together and started shooting down those assault craft. Seeing one explode spectacularly elicits some cheers from the guild members.

Shuttles begin to start leaving the arena. They are basically flying school busses, fuck those things are asking to be shot down and where are they going to land? Hopefully not here, the mortar teams will destroy them assuming they are just sitting on crates of ammo. The lights in the shops begin to flicker around us then the power goes out for the block.

Shit my vision is reduced to inside fifty yards, reaching up with my right hand pulling down my night vision goggles they pierce through the darkness. Thankfully I don't spot any targets.

"Someone check and see if there is still power on around the area." Barry shouts. Behind me I hear someone running away from us then back towards the checkpoint.

"Boss, power is out all around the arena!" A female voice shouts back.

"Damm animals cut the power." A male voice across from me says, several of the guild member begin digging for items in their packs.

With a few faint clicks and the area in front of us is lit up with artificial light from flashlights.

Barry rushes over to the guild member snatching the flashlights and turning them off.

"Turn off those fucking flashlights." He grunts angrily.

"How are we supposed to fight them if we can't see them?" Says A short guild member with a large mace.

"Those lights will give away your position and we will be able to see in front of us shortly when our eyes adjust, keep your heads down." Barry says as he moves back to his cover.

My radio hisses.

"Marc do we fall back?" Viola asks

"No stay there I can see plenty fine I'll let you know when to move." I say while thumbing on the IR laser on my PEQ box seeing the beam float in the air.

I see a large group of white fang members running into the street bouncing from cover to cover I pull the laser over to the chest of one of them. His head moves slightly spotting the beam but it's too late.

"CONTACT FRONT!" I yell as I squeeze off a controlled burst and the white fang member crumples in a heap. The other guild member begin to open up but their fire is more sporadic. I see bolts of energy fly down the road, some of them finding a target but most going too low.

My beam moves across the road finding an insurgent wielding what looks like a light machine gun he gets a burst off causing a few guild members to duck. Pulling the rifle tighter into my shoulder I snap the beam to his torso letting loose a controlled pair before finishing him off with a failure to stop to the head. His head cracks open like an egg. A few rounds wiz over my head filling the air around me with ozone. Shifting my position to the other side of my cover I get a good angle on a shotgun wielding target, he leans out taking pot shots at the barrier.

My beam settles on his upper torso I drill four rounds into him he crumples to the ground. The squad of insurgents keep bounding closer and closer to our line. At this point the weight of fire against them increases dramatically as they enter into the effective range of the guilds weapons, most of them are cut down only fifty yards in front of us.

As I swap to a fresh magazine and return the mostly spent one to my plate carrier I see that there are roughly fifteen dead insurgents littering the streets in front of us.

"Viola hold your position, that was just a probing attack, over." I say into the radio the connection crackles.

"Understood will keep holding." She says.

Looking over I see that everyone is checking their weapons and taking inventory. Barry is sneaking around behind the barrier checking on everyone.

"How's your dust looking." He asks a heavy set man weilding what looks like an exotic musket with an oversized bayonet on it he gives a thumbs up and keeps going down the line.

I look back down the street to see that a wiry man weilding a simple looking rifle is walking over to a wounded White Fang member probably in his early twenties clutching his side trying to keep his guts from spilling out, his weapon destroyed next to him.

"JEFF GET BACK BEHIND THE BARRICADE." Barry yells at the man, but he waves Barry off.

"Going to grab him and get some intel out of him." He says assured as he nears the critical White Fang member kneeling down grabbing him by his shoulders as he begins to drag him back to the barricade eliciting an agonizing scream from the insurgent.

"LEAVE HIM WE DON'T HAVE THE SUPPLIES TO TEND TO HIM." Barry pleads with him. I take aim but his body is blocking my line of sight.

"Who said we were going to treat him?" He says looking back with a grim smile. My headset picks up a faint metallic click.

"RUN." I shout

Jeff looks down at the faunus letting go of him.

BANG.

A flash of light engulfs Jeff and the faunus. Jeff is blown onto his back with his torso completely blown open, his internal organs exposed to the open air. His body seizes in his death throes the mind not realizing that the body is finished.

"H… H-elp." he says faintly choking on his own blood as he expires.

I clutch the forearm of my rifle in a death grip, gritting my teeth I look over to Barry. He is on his knees in shock, everyone else is stunned into silence at the violence of his death.

"Barry you still with me?" I shout over to him. He flinches as if my words hit him over the head.

"What's the plan?" I ask.

"Give no quarter." Barry says faintly but the message clear across the line. The night is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. The radio crackles to life.

"Marc what was that explosion?" Viola asks.

"White Fang member killed himself with a grenade that got a guild member killed. Treat even critically wounded White Fang members as hostile, over." I say back.

"Clear." she says back.

The night goes silent again some of the guild member shifting in their positions while others are adding to the barricade.

"Barry do you think that was all of them?" A male voice asks

"No that was a probing attack they will be back with more, be ready." He says grimly.

I take the opportunity to pull off my pack, swapping out the spent magazines in my dump pouch with full ones stored inside it that I shove into the empty spots in my mag pouches. I also grab the grenade launcher and load a round into it, placing it on the ground next to me just incase.

I really hope Barry is wrong glancing back up over the sky I see that the larger airships are letting loose smaller attack craft to descend upon the city. Peeking back over I look down the street seeing that its empty outside of the dead and dying. I hear the faint clicking of metal on concrete as I stare down at the street to see that it's being filled with small canisters. There's a pop and a loud hiss and the street begins to fill with an impenetrable smoke.

Clever tactic, we can't shoot what we can't see. There is only about twenty feet of ground between the smoke and the barrier.

"MARC can your goggles see through the smoke?" Barry yells with a hint of panic.

"No but I've got something for it." I say while flipping out one of my goggles. I reach into a pouch in my vest pulling out my thermal monocular. I push the power button and it warms up as I bring it to my eye. As the screen comes on and the thermal device's vision pierces through the smoke I'm met by a wall of bodies glowing white hot.

"OPEN FIRE!" I yell as I drop the monocular flipping down the goggles and reaching for a grenade. The guild members begin to fire blindly into the smoke cloud lighting it up with their dust rounds.

Hooking my pointer finger around the pin I yank on it and let the spoon go. I toss it into the smoke and it detonates only a second later. I grin to myself hearing the faint screams of agony from the insurgents that where unlucky enough to get hit by the grenade.

Rinsing and repeating with another hand grenade I hear more insurgents getting caught in the explosion hoping that it will break the moralle of the assault force which has us outnumbered by quite a bit.

This may not end well. I bring my rifle up as I scan across the wall of smoke waiting for targets to appear. I flick the selector to full-auto.

If this is how it's going to end I'm going to make sure to take as many of them with me as I can. Seeing the first insurgent leaving the cover of the smoke I snap my rifle to his chest letting loose a short burst from it and perforating him as he crumples over in a heap, dead. As more of them begin to spill out of the smoke fire is exchanged between the two groups with the attacking party getting closer and closer as they are slowly overcoming the weight of fire from the guild members. I withdraw behind cover, pitch out an empty magazine, and insert a fresh one lending my firepower to the defense.

They keep getting closer and closer and the weight of fire is slowly starting to suppress us at the barrier. A few dust bolts wiz past my head as I duck down. I take a different angle, letting a few rounds loose into the human wave. I look over to Barry and he nods back at me. I push the stud on my radio.

"NOW." I shout into the radio then expend most of my magazine in a long spray, might as well use it up while I'm still not in danger of hitting friendlies. I see the group of melee guild huntsman spilling into the street hitting the wave of white fang members in the flank, Viola leading them like and angel of death weaving in and out of the crowd leaving bloody toll behind her. The sudden charge catches the insurgents off guard robbing them of their momentum as the smoke clears giving the guild members at the barricade a better advantage with the ranged weapons.

There is a large melee forming in front of the barricade the guild huntsman are holding their own but they are being slowly pushed from the sheer weight of numbers. A few pot shots are being exchanged between the supporting elements of each side but it seems that they too are conscious of the risk of friendly fire. A young male huntsman in studded leather moves next to me wielding a slender rifle, poking out and taking shots with it into the melee. He exposes himself again only for me to hear a wet slap as I look over to him to see that an arrow is buried in the center of his chest as he collapses to the ground. I grab him by the collar and pull him into the safety behind my cover.

"MEDIC." I yell and a young woman comes running next to me. She rushes to his side while I begin scanning for where that arrow came from, taking opportunistic shots at any target that presents itself.

Another arrow beams past the barricade missing a guild huntsman and this time I spot the sniper lurking in the shadows behind the wave of insurgents taking cover behind a large above ground concrete planters box as he knocks another arrow.

I dash to another piece of cover to get a better angle, hearing several dust bullets fly around me as I do so. As I peek out it looks the sniper has caught wind of my plan and is making a break for another piece of cover. I bring my rifle to bear seeing the IR beam begin to settle on the sniper but he dodges it as just as I let off a round and I miss him before he slides into cover. Shifting again within my cover I choose a different angle. I peek out again at the price of cover the infrared beam hovering over the sniper's position. As the sniper leans out from the right hand side I snap my rifle to him letting loose a shot as he loses an arrow.

He crumples at the same time I feel a sharp pain on my cheek and I fall on my back onto the ground. My left hand reaches up instinctively touching the would to feel that I was only grazed in comparison to the dead sniper. I feel blood on my finger tips from the scratch that the arrow head caused me.

I push myself back up with my hand. Now kneeling again I pull my rifle up into my shoulder and begin firing into the wave of insurgents anew, feeling the rifle buck and kick into my shoulder. With their momentum now completely gone and taking heavy losses they begin to break as they start to fall back in an orderly fashion.

Viola and her band of guild huntsmen begin pushing them back taking advantage of the insurgents retreat. Over the roar of battle my headset picks up the faint growling of two large engines one with a slightly high pitch and rev.

Reinforcements. This is not going to end well.

"BARRY! MECHANISED REINFORCEMENTS!" I shout as I take my right hand off my rifle keying up my radio.

"FALL BACK NOW REINFORCEMENTS!" I shout into the radio. I see Viola freeze and yell to the guild members. They start to fall back but it is already too late.

A large three axle truck followed by a smaller pick up with a mounted heavy machine gun begins to open up on the barricade. The dust bolts chew threw the makeshift cover forcing most of the guild members to ground as better equipped and better armed insurgents spill out of the back of the larger truck reinforcing their comrades.

I drop my rifle letting it hang from my sling loosely across my chest before grabbing the grenade launcher and spotting the technical.

It opens fire on the retreating guild members caught in no man's land between the insurgents and the barricade. Most of the rounds miss due to them having to shoot over their comrades.

As I pull the grenade launcher to my shoulder and sight in on the technical aiming for the gunner I see the red bolts strike a few of the guild members. They stumble from the impact then immediately erupt into flames burning from the inside out. I try to ignore their screams and pleas for help the best I can.

A bolt flies past Violas head and strikes a guild member in front of her he collapses and as he hits the ground immediately catches fire.

I squeeze the trigger and feel it break followed by the sharp recoil as the round flies over the insurgents. It lands in the bed of the truck detonating and killing the gunner then shortly after causing the truck to explode from the dust ammo cooking off.

What's left of the melee guild members just stumble or fall over the barricade. Viola graceful vaults over my piece of cover and lands next to me. Her axes are covered in blood and she has some bruising on her arms but she's in a lot better shape than most of the other guild members.

She gives me a nod then with several loud clicks she transforms her hand axes into their subgun form.

I swap mags, pitching the partially spent one to the ground and reloading. Viola and I both peek out from cover at the same time and start firing into oncoming wave.

"Viola it was pleasure but this might be it." I say sardonically .

The weight of small arms fire coming our way increases dramatically as the insurgent shock troops open up on us. Their fire seems to have become dramatically more effective as I hear shouts and screams from the hit guild members.

The white fang shock troops sprint to close the gap. Snapping my rifle to the closest shock troop I let loose a full auto spray watching the rounds hit his chest. He staggers as his aura absorbs the first few shots before the rounds begin to penetrate and he crumples to the ground.

The silencer on the end of my rifle starts to smoke from the sustained fire. I feel the bolt of my rifle lock open as it runs dry and a shock troop wielding a large mace begins to vault the cover in front of me.

Not enough time to reload. I drop my rifle, reaching for my father's pistol. I pull it free of its holster and squeeze out two rounds into his chest and put the third one in between his eyes. He collapses in a heap dead in front of me. I snap the pistol to the next target only to hear a loud roar above me as the ground in front of me is lit up with heavy weapons fire. Turning the ground in front of us into a hellscape of explosions and bullets.

I look up to see an attack craft's nose gun firing indiscriminately into the charging White Fang as Atlesian troops are fast roping and jumping out of the assault craft taking cover at the barrier and lending their fire to ours.

I keep firing with my pistol watching the charge turn into a slaughter. The gun locks open and I shove another magazine into it. Power stroking the pistol and getting it back into action I keep shooting. I hear a loud crash behind us as the assault craft stops shooting and ascends watching as a large humanoid robot leaps over the barrier and begins attacking the surviving White Fang members, opening on them with short range flamethrowers and heavy cannons mounted on its chest while using its arms to smash any shock troops unlucky enough to get within its reach.

The Atlesian troops leap and bound over the barricade. As I look at them I see that they are wearing exoskeletons as they gun down any white fang member that the massive humanoid robot missed.

Fuck me if I was a boston dynamics engineer I'd have to change my underwear. Seeing that the battle is now over I go back behind my cover pressing my back into the wall and slowly sliding down it exhaling slowly. I know full well that if we didn't get reinforced we would all be dead or worse. Pulling off my assault pack, I begin to load loose rounds into my spent magazines. My hands shake as my body winds down from the adrenaline that has flooded my system.

"You still there Marc?" Viola says, winded.

I exhale loudly as I push another round into a magazine.

"Don't want to do this again." I mutter out loud looking over the dead and critically wounded guild member behind the barrier.

Looks like my guardian angel is the Atlesian military. I try to shove another round into the full magazine before realising it's already topped off. I place it into my vest and go to the next one.

"I'm good, wish I could say the same for some of the other guild members." I say, which seems to stun Viola to silence as she looks over the aftermath of the battle.

I top off my magazines and pull my assault pack over my back. I reach into my vest pulling out my canteen and chug my water downing most of the container. I hand it over to Viola and she ends up downing the rest handing it back to me I replace it back in my vest.

"What's next?" Viola asks. I look up at the sky shrugging before looking back over to her.

"Don't know. We should take advantage of the lull while we can." I say flatly. I look over my gear taking inventory and an ammo count. I've burnt through a good chunk of grenades. I take a glance over at Viola and see that she is doing the same.

"Are you good?" I say, gesturing to the bruises on her arms. She looks over her arms and slowly flexes them before looking back over to me with a slow nod.

The sound of combat ends and I look over to see the mech along with other Atlis troops pushing the perimeter up. Other troops are going over the dead and collecting the critically wounded. Most are restrained before they get first aid and are being carefully pulled back behind the barrier. Most of the guild members backing away give a wide berth to the wounded insurgents.

There's a faint mechanical whine coming from the exoskeletons as they clank by making a reasonable amount of noise. May not be the best for covert ops, but I would love to take one for a spin.

A familiar car rolls up behind the barricade this time however most of the windows are shot out and the exterior is covered in burns and divots from dust rounds.

Sergey gets out of the passenger seat. He's wearing a vest and has a shotgun slung across his chest. His partner gets out and she grabs an oversized rod shaped mace almost as tall as she is they make their way towards us.

Sergey seems relieved that we both survived. I hear footsteps move next to me then stop glancing over to see Barry standing next to me with a look of frustration on his face.

"Barry, Viola, and Marc, I'm glad to see that you weathered the initial assault." Sergey says as he looks over to Barry.

"I'm terribly sorry for your lost guild member but I still have need for your guild to help bolster our numbers." He says softly trying to be diplomatic. Barry exhales loudly then straightens out running a hand through his hair.

"I want payment upfront before my men move out, but that said what is it you need us to do?" Barry says with determination.

"Good, if you can call upon any more reinforcements that would be super, your guild will help us push out the lines clearing hostiles and giving a cordon for civilians to escape through. The goal is to push from here to beacon academy and also secure the CCT which is a soft target." Sergey says. Barry nods in agreement probably already formulating a plan.

"I'll triple the normal rate of your guild I'll also match any benefits for deceased guild members." He finishes.

"You drive a hard bargain, my men have been through the ringer but most of them probably want to settle the score with the White Fang and the quicker we end this the safer our families will be." He says holding out his right hand which Sergey takes and they shake.

They both let go and Barry jogs over to his guild and holds a meeting.

"You got a status report for us?" I ask looking at Sergey, he waves his left hand for us to follow. We move over to the abused car him and Copper were in.

"Status? It's a shit show. White Fang caught us completely off guard. Their ground assault into the city has stalled out but we have lost a lot of robots in the defense of that bridge head. The pressing issue is the attrition from the grimm and the sleeper cells along with the units that were air dropped into the city and their grimm cargo." He says with disgust.

"The White Fang are dropping grimm into the city? That's a war crime!" Viola says with shock.

"It's a dirty tactic." Copper says, spitting onto the ground.

"The plan is simple, form a line then we will push them back block by block until we crush them with the reinforced troops that fended off the ground assault." Sergey finishes.

"Simple but solid, but what do you want us to do?" I ask.

"You two need to find Pyrrha Nikos we need her safe so we can extract her." He says as he reaches into his jacket handing me a small metal that looks like a radio.

"Pyrrha Nikos? The redheaded girl from the school? Why her?" I ask inquisitively.

"I'm not sure why but the higher ups have designated her as a high value individual, you know how these things are." Sergey shrugs. "When you find her hit the button on the transmitter, we will come and get you from where you are at if you feel the LZ is safe. For the time being you will push out with the shock troops, don't expect much support from them but you two can act on your own." He finishes pointing to a man without his helmet with black hair and a mohawk.

"Talk to him so his team doesn't shoot you by mistake." He adds chuckling.

I nod back to him, looking over to Viola she nods in agreement and we say our goodbyes and walk over to the team leader see him calmly issuing orders to his team. We move next near him waiting for him to finish he spots the two of us and walks over to us.

"So you two are Sergey's pet black-ops unit?" He asks with some sarcasm as he offers his hand for a shake. I take the offered hand shaking it.

"You could say that, Marc dawson and you are?" I ask. He grins back at me he has brown eyes with a slight tan and his features remind me of an spanish conquistadors from earth.

"Sergeant Richardson, I know you are going to tag along I'll make sure my guys don't shoot you. IFF should be easy, most of the insurgents are wearing uniforms thankfully, but its not going to be an easy fight." Richardson says running a hand through his hair.

"Good to know you won't accidentally shoot us, we'll follow and try to not get in your way." I say and he nods back in agreement then puts on his helmet.

"Time to go." He says jogging off to his squad of roughly thirty men and women, they form up around him and begin pushing down the street.

"Let's not get left behind." I say as we begin to jog over the battlefield running around the bodies of both the White Fang and guild members.

The squad is letting the mech push forward moving at a slower pace being covered by a smaller group of troops. The progress is slow but any firefights that we come across are extremely short especially with the mech being the vanguard forcing the WF to fall back.

I glance up to the sky seeing transport ships leaving the coliseum. Looks like its safe enough for them to start evacuating. I do see a few of the ships being swarmed by flying grimm but they are cut down by small nimble fighters. The ships are slow.

Out of the corner of my eye I see a streak of light shoot up from the horizon making a B-line to a transport ship.

Shit, please miss. I watch the ship begin to take evasive action but the missile finds it target detonating a wing and an engine in a shower of shrapnel. The craft immediately begins losing control and altitude as it banks towards us.

"Get to cover that ship is coming down on us." I yell. The squad begins to break for cover and Viola and I run into a shop. We huddle down behind the counter for whatever good that will do.

The ground shakes as the ship crash lands. We both peek our heads out to see the smoke rising from only a few blocks away.

"We gotta help them! Grimm and WF could be swarming them right now!" Viola says with some panic.

I nod in agreement. Richardson runs over to us.

"We are going to check that crashed transport ship." I say

"The squad will give you some cover but we gotta keep pushing the line out, I've already called in a rescue team." He says then runs back to his team and they begin to move out in the direction of the crash.

Viola and I begin to sprint towards the crash site. We round a corner to see that it had landed in a small park tearing up the ground. The engine is smoking and a few students are outside of the craft helping other students evacuate the downed vessel.

"Viola cover the outside of the craft I'll see what I can do on the inside expect contacts." I say to her as the sound of gunfire picks up a few blocks away from us.

I run up to the students the injured ones are sitting by a swing set as the uninjured ones are going in and out of the craft.

"You guys need to get into cover, go to that office and hunker down there, a rescue team is coming." I say to them softly they look back at me with glazed eyes they slowly get up and carry themselves into the office.

I move to the ship climbing into the escape hatch. It's dark, the power is out. I turn the light on illuminating the interior of the craft spotting two students covered in bruises helping a student with a broken leg out of her seat. They freeze like a deer in the headlights.

"I'm here to help." I say as I lower my rifle and move next to them, grabbing another student that is knocked out. I pick him up and carry him out of the ship, gently placing him on the ground by the swing set. The two students help carry the girl with the broken leg next to the swing set.

"Your friends are hiding in that office building, take her there." I say to them they nod and do so one of them picking up the knocked out guy and making the short walk over there.

Heading back into the ship I see more students are coming to and getting out of there seats. Most of their injuries are mild lacerations or broken arms.

"There's an office building head there a rescue team is coming." I shout to them which seems to raise their mood. I let them pass by me as I move deeper into the ship.

The radio crackles in my ear.

"Marc I see the students taking shelter in the office building." She says then the line goes dead.

I push the activation stud while panning the muzzle of my rifle, illuminating the rest of the cabin on the ship.

"Gonna clear the ship, it should be clear we will wait for the rescue team keep an eye out, over." I say

"Understood." Viola says back. The front of the ship is a wreck of twisted metal. I'm about to turn around but I hear a faint wheeze in front of me to my left. I move up seeing a piece of structural steel stabbed through a chair. I look around to chair to see a young male student impaled, the rod stabbing through his liver just below the rib cage.

Shit.

Letting my rifle hang I begin to check his vitals. His pulse is weak. The boy is probably seventeen with short blond hair and teal eyes. He looks at me in desperation. Blood staining his school uniform similar to what I was wearing when I first met Viola.

"Hey, you're going to be fine, help is coming." I say softly knowing this kid needs help badly.

I step away but I feel a hand grab my forearm.

"P-Please Don't leave me." he says weakly, a trickle of blood drooling out of the side of his lip.

"I'm not going anywhere I'm going to see if I can get you out of here." I say inspecting the rod to see that it's firmly lodged into the floor and frame of the craft.

Fuck thats not good this kid is stuck here. I look over at the metal rod and see it's about one inch in diameter. I reach into my kit, pulling out a bandage and placing it around the bar to try and control the bleeding using tape to keep the bandage in place as it slowly begins to turn red.

"What your name? I'm Marc." I say in a reassuring tone locking eyes with him. His head turns to face me. His skin is pale he's losing a lot of blood from internal bleeding.

"T-tanner." He says weakly then coughs, causing him to groan in agony agitating the wound.

"Tanner what I'm about to do is really going to hurt." I say feeling my chest tighten as I turn to face the aisle of the transport ship. Closing my eyes a gritting my teeth I open them to see a cordless reciprocating saw appear in front of me. Picking it up off the floor I pull the trigger and it whines to life angrily.

I reach into my vest grabbing a spare glove.

My radio hisses again.

"Marc what's taking so long? We have grimm company." Viola says with due haste.

"A kid is impaled inside the shuttle. I'm going to free him. Cover the students in the office building." I say back. There is a slight pause but I hear footsteps on the roof of the craft as she jumps off it.

"Open your mouth we don't have much time." I say. He opens his mouth and and I let him bite down on the glove.

"I'm sorry." I say as I power on the saw and begin to saw away at the rod.

Tanner's screams are muffled, tears stream down his face and his body bucks as the vibrations from the saw blade agitate his wounds. The saw makes quick work of the rod and I look over to Tanner. He's breathing fast as he nods back at me. I shift position going to the back side of the seat. I begin again with the saw and hear the muffled scream again. I try to ignore the screams but I can't anger and frustration fill my mind as I finish up with my work.

"Tanner you still there." I say shifting back to get a better view of him. He spits out the glove and just nods I look at the bandage to see that it's a deep red.

"Marc you've got grimm swarming the ship get out now." Viola says over the radio I begin to hear claws scraping over the metal.

Standing up I lean the kid forward which causes him to yell in agony I pull out a large piece of tape from my vest and place it over the wound on his back. He protests slightly from the moment but he does his best to keep silent probably hearing the grimm crawling over the ship.

I hear the tearing of metal and I see another werewolf looking grimm poking his head through the hole. Bringing my rifle to bear I let off a short burst riddling its head. It collapses away from the hole.

I quickly swap to a fresh magazine. Dropping my rifle and letting it hang I grab Tanner and throw him over my shoulder in a fireman carry. My knees bend slightly as I adjust to his weight. I draw my pistol keeping it in front of me trained at the hole the sound of metal being ripped open becomes more oppressive as another hole opens up with a bear looking grimm staring through it. I squeeze off two rounds and they both punch through its head.

I walk forward trying to be gentle but I can feel tanners breathing starting to slow down. I quickly holster my pistol pressing the magazine release with my thumb and stripping it out placing it in my plate carrier and grabbing a fresh magazine before pushing it back into my pistol and feeling it lock in. I draw it once more as we make it near the exit. I drop down, my feet hit the ground, and I bottom out going to my knees and grunting as I feel it in my bones. Righting myself I hear claws on pavement to my right. I rotate bringing my pistol to bear and squeeze off four rounds. The pistol bucks in my hand as the muzzle flash illuminates the grimm. The flash shines off its open maw each dagger like tooth seeking my flesh as it crumples to the ground.

"We are almost to safety." I say as I start to jog over to the office building seeing that Viola is making short work of the Grimm that are charging her position. She kills the last few with several acrobatic sweeps of her twin axes decapitating the last one. I run past Viola and into the office building and place Tanner onto the ground gently.

"Keep pressure on his wound." I shout to the students. The uninjured ones from before move over to Tanner placing their hands over his wound.

Standing up I run back out taking a few shots past Viola to thin out the numbers of grimm she has to deal with in close quarters, noticing another type of grimm that looks like a shorter velociraptor as I do so.

"Thanks for the assist!" Viola shouts over the crackling of her twin axes as they fill the air with ozone and she bisects another grimm in half. The tide of grimm seems to be thinning out but the grimm replacing them are larger and seem to have more natural armor.

Sighting down another werewolf like grimm covered in thick white bone plates and several large spines protruding out of its back I squeeze off a short burst. The rounds perforate its chest but that only enrages it at is charges me. In a panic I clamp down on my rifle holding down the trigger to let off a sustained burst. My rifle rattles and hisses angrily as I compensate for the recoil but the grimm eventually collapses dead a few yards in front of me. I drop the magazine letting it hit the ground and doing a quick tactical reload. I walk forward moving closer to Viola to better cover her. Spotting another similar grimm trying to flank her I let off a short burst which ruptures his head.

"Don't know how much longer we can hold this position! They just keep coming!" I yell. I look over to Viola as she pulls one of her axes out of a fallen grimm looking slightly winded.

"That recovery team better get here quick." She says as I hear the slapping of flesh on pavement behind me turning around to see two of the larger werewolf grimm had jumped off the roof of the office building getting behind us.

I don't even think. Stepping away and keeping my back to Viola as I spray the first grimm down. I turn my rifle to the other one and hold down the trigger spitting out a few rounds into its chest before the gun locks open dry.

Shit.

I drop the rifle and go for my pistol. The grimm lands in front of me opening its jaws and I instinctively shield myself with my right forearm pushing it into the back of its mouth as it closes on my right arm.

Searing pain shoots through me as its teeth penetrate the skin of my forearm. I bring my pistol to bear one handed and dump the contents of the magazine into the grimm's skull. It dies and releases itself from my forearm and I yell in pain as my body fully registers the damage.

"Marc are you ok!?" Viola shouts concerned.

"I'm fine." I say, feeling winded as I emergency reload my pistol and rifle getting them both back into the fight. I look up the side of the building seeing two more grimm trying the same trick. I quickly punish them both for it and they fall of the wall dead landing in a heap.

"They are coming down from on top of the building." I say as another grimm peaks his head over and I do it the favor of removing it with a controlled pair.

"We can't hold this position." She says.

"I know but we have to." I say letting out a grunt feeling the pain in my right begin to radiate over the whole arm.

I pick off a few more grimm coming over the top of the office building, and while reloading a fresh magazine I begin to scan the rooftops as it becomes eerily quiet around us.

"Viola did the Grimm retreat?" I ask turning around briefly seeing her standing over a pile of dissolving grimm. She's recharging her axes.

"No we just killed the ones drawn to us." She says quietly.

"I'll go check on the kids in the building." I say turning jogging back to the building. "IF you see the evac flag them down." I add.

Moving to the entrance of the building I see a kid run out of the building with a panicked look on his face.

"T-Tanner he's not breathing!" He says in a panic. I push past him and sprint into the room where I spot Tanner and a student next to him with his hands covered in blood. I drop to my knees next to him.

"He was talking b-but he closed his eyes and stopped breathing shortly after I'm sorry." The other male student says in shock.

"Keep your hands on his wound." I say firmly reaching up pulling off my helmet my hearing returns to normal as I kneel down on the ground and place it next to me. Reaching down and out with my right hand I feel for his pulse in his neck while lowering my head to hear and feel any breathing and watch Tanners chest.

Please still be breathing … no pulse no breathing bad. Rising I wrap both of my hands together placing my hand on the lower part of his sternum. I begin compressions pushing down into his chest with my upper body causing his whole body to shift I begin to count out the reps.

"Stay with me Tanner help is coming." I say to him just and to myself.

Finishing the reps I move to his head tilting it back. I breathe into him for two breaths feeling resistance as I fill his lungs like a balloon. I go back to chest compression.

"Viola any sign of the recovery team!?" I shout to her not looking up continuing with the CPR.

"No I don't … wait there is a hammerhead heading towards us!" She says enthusiastically.

I let out a sigh of relief. Even though tanner is still in a bad spot his chances just got better as the roar of jet engines grow in the distance. I glance up at the other students as some of them begin to shift and stand up. I focus back in on my task.

"The wounded students are in here, one of them is badly injured!" I hear Viola shout amidst the sound of several boots running on the ground. I look up seeing Viola run into the office building. We make eye contact while I'm mid compression. The sight stops her where she stands as the Atlesian medics move next to me.

"He's unresponsive and has lost a lot of blood." I say to the medic still wearing his combat helmet.

"You did good we will take it from here." A male voice says slightly distorted through his helmet. I nod back to him grabbing my helmet as the other students are lead into the assault craft. They quickly get to work on Tanner cutting open his shirt and affixing what looks like a defibrillator on him while they prep a stretcher. Putting my helmet back on I move over to Viola. Her eyes are affixed on Tanner. I move next to her turning to face him and the medics as they begin to push IV's into his arm and watch his whole body constrict as the defibrillator shocks him.

Please you can pull through this.

I don't even notice as another medic comes to me grabbing my arm. I flinch slightly but I let him roll up the sleeve of my right arm. He looks over my arm wiping off the bite wound with an antiseptic wipe causing the bite to burn as the chemicals go to work. I grit my teeth as he goes into his pack and pulls out a thin metal bottle and some bandages. He takes the bottle and sprays a light green mist over my forearm. Pain flares up on my arm making me clench my fist instinctively as the medic wraps my forearm with a bandage.

"You will be good to fight, the wound should stay closed. I'd get it properly patched up after this settles down." He says. I nod back to him as he jogs off to help lead the rest of the kids into the hammerhead.

Glancing back over at Tanner I see they have moved him onto the stretcher. One of the medics checks him again then slumps forward slightly and glances down at his watch. I feel Viola grab at my hand squeezing it as one of the medics covers Tanner's body with an opaque plastic cover. He mumbles something that I can't make out then rests his hand on Tanner's head through the plastic sheet. They carefully lift him up and take him to the chopper as one of the students yells in frustration. I look over to see the shock and anger contorting his face as tears roll down his cheeks. One of the medics restrains him as the bullhead's engines roar to life.

"You two be safe!" One of the medics yells as the bay door closes and the ship takes off.

I squeeze Viola's hand back then we both let go after a few moments. I walk over to my discarded rifle kneeling down slinging it and letting it rest. A faint crackle comes from my vest and I grab the communicator Sergey gave us, thumbing what I think is the volume so that Viola and I can listen.

 **+++ Marc,Viola, Pyrrha and a bunch of students took a shuttle and landed by the CCTT near Beacon Academy, that should help narrow down your search, also an armored vanguard unit is pushing that way and you are not too far from them to link up.+++**

I nod my head and look over to Viola. She nods back and I press what I hope is the activation stud.

"Understood we are on the move." I say back the link goes dead.

 **+++ Good hunting +++**

Returning the device to my vest I take a few steps toward the exit of the office building. I reach for my rifle on the ground scooping it up and stepping out of the building. I hear Viola move behind me then too my side.

There is a short exchange of gunfire ended by a small explosion just off to my ten O'Clock.

"I think that's the Atlis vanguard." I say looking over to Viola. She stares over in the direction of the conflict.

"I know a shortcut." She says back but chews on her words for a few seconds and her face sours, before she starts running. I jog behind her as she leads us through a bunch of narrow alleyways. We slow down and my rifle scans the darkness as I expect a grimm to leap out of the shadows at any moment, the thought sending a shiver down my spine.

"Marc are you ok?" Viola almost whispers barely audible above her footsteps

For how timid Viola acts she can be surprisingly perceptive. We both sprint across a street into another alleyway.

"Short answer yes … long answer no." I grunt out thinking back to Tanner. A stone of anger fills my gut and my hands strain on my rifle.

"It's not easy having a young kid die in front of you." I growl, anger seeping into the words. Violas face darkens as she keeps moving through the alleyways getting closer and closer to the sounds of battle echoing through the alleys.

Viola stops, taking cover by what looks like an AC unit for building. Moving next to her I crouch and peek out to see that the alleyway leads out into the main street.

"This should be where we need to be." She says as the ground shakes with a series of explosions.

"Let's hope they don't shoot us on sight." I say moving to the end of the alley. I peek out onto the street seeing four paladins stomping around unleashing death on any grimm or White Fang that happen to find their way into their firing arc.

My vision is quickly flooded with a blinding white light.

"Lower your weapons and raise your hands." Says a male voice distorted through a loudspeaker. I squint not being able to see past the blinding light letting my rifle hang and slowly raising my hands.

Several heavily armed Atlesian troops surround us.

"My ID is in my side pouch." Viola says turning slightly as one soldier covers her while the other confirms her ID.

Two approach me rifles leveled at me.

"Check the communicator in my chest rig, that should be enough for you." I say.

One of them grabs it and looks it over and I hear faint static from the radio inside their helmet.

"Both of you are clear, follow me." The one in charge says and the spot light turns off revealing a large armored personnel carrier idling and who I assume is the commander of this push slides off the top of the vehicle his boots making a dull clapping noise as they hit the pavement.

"Welcome to my little war." He boasts.


End file.
